Trial reportMolecular psychiatry2017
Selective increase of cerebrospinal fluid IL-6 during experimental systemic inflammation in humans: association with depressive symptoms.
Trial report in Molecular psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Obesity, low-grade inflammation, and inflammatory response to immune challenge modulate willingness to expend effort for reward.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Trial
- Does inflammation moderate the effect of vitamin D supplementation on depressive symptoms? Results of an interventional study in children and adolescents.European journal of nutrition · 2026Trial
- Inflammation-induced depressed mood and reward responsivity as a function of age in female adults: a randomized controlled trial of endotoxin.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Placebo effects improve sickness symptoms and drug efficacy during systemic inflammation: a randomized controlled trial in human experimental endotoxemia.BMC medicine · 2025Trial
- Qigong exercise enhances cognitive functions in the elderly via an interleukin-6-hippocampus pathway: A randomized active-controlled trial.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2021Trial
- Effects of acute systemic inflammation on the interplay between sad mood and affective cognition.Translational psychiatry · 2017Trial
- IL-33-induced neuroimmune regulation in depression: A narrative review from molecular mechanisms to therapeutic potential.Medicine · 2026Review
- Inflammatory models of depression in rodents and humans.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- The dietary ligands, omega-3 fatty acid endocannabinoids and short-chain fatty acids prevent cytokine-induced reduction of human hippocampal neurogenesis and alter the expression of genes involved in neuroinflammation and neuroplasticity.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Microglia-Derived Interleukin-6 Triggers Astrocyte Apoptosis in the Hippocampus and Mediates Depression-Like Behavior.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Possible association of elevated CSF IL-6 levels with anxiety and frustration in psychiatric disorders.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2024Article
- Antidepressant-like Effects ofPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- CD4Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
- Metabolic Endotoxemia: From the Gut to Neurodegeneration.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Biomarkers of stress resilience: A review.Neuroscience applied · 2024Article
- Breaking free from the inflammatory trap of depression: Regulating the interplay between immune activation and plasticity to foster mental health.Neuroscience applied · 2024Review
- Gut inflammation associated with age and Alzheimer's disease pathology: a human cohort study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Individuals with depression exhibiting a pro-inflammatory phenotype receiving omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids experience improved motivation-related cognitive function: Preliminary results from a randomized controlled trial.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Towards Novel Potential Molecular Targets for Antidepressant and Antipsychotic Pharmacotherapies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- The relationship between Central Nervous System morphometry changes and key symptoms in Crohn's disease.Brain imaging and behavior · 2023Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Systemic inflammation is accompanied by profound behavioral and mood changes that resemble symptoms of depression. Findings in animals suggest that pro-inflammatory cytokines released by activated immune cells in the periphery evoke these behavioral symptoms by driving inflammatory changes in the brain. However, experimental data in humans are lacking. Here we demonstrate in healthy male volunteers (10 endotoxin treated, 8 placebo treated) that intravenous administration of low-dose endotoxin (0.8 ng/kg body weight), a prototypical pathogen-associated molecular pattern that activates the innate immune system, not only induces a significant increase in peripheral blood cytokine concentrations (that is, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10) but also results, with some latency, in a robust and selective increase of IL-6 in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Moreover, we found a strong association between the endotoxin-induced increase of IL-6 in the CSF and the severity of mood impairment, with larger increases in CSF IL-6 concentration followed by a greater deterioration in mood. Taken together, these findings suggest that the appearance of depressive symptoms in inflammatory conditions might be primarily linked to an increase in central IL-6 concentration, identifying IL-6 as a potential therapeutic target in mood disorders.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.