1Abeer, A. El-Sayed and 2Hisham A.
Ramy
Departments of 1Microbiology
& Immunology and 2Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medicine,
The immune system and its relation to psychiatric disorders
has attracted many investigators, but there is still great controversy about
the extent of immunological changes associated with different psychiatric
disorders. Bipolar disorder is the least studied among the three major
psychiatric disorders: schizophrenia, major depression and bipolar disorder.
The current study was conducted on 20 patients with mania in comparison to 20
healthy controls, to evaluate changes in percentage of lymphocytes, active
T-lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells. We found a significant decrease in
the percentage of lymphocytes in mania patients as compared to controls.
Assessment of Active T. lymphocyte (HLADR +) and NK cell (CD56 +)
by flowcytometry using a battery of paired (FITC and PE) monoclonal antibodies,
revealed significant decrease in NK cells (P<0.001), while no significant
difference was found between patients and controls as regards percentage of
active T lymphocytes. It is concluded that the immune response is altered in
manic patients. However, further studies on large number of cases using various
immunological parameters related to CMI are needed to confirm these findings.