Circulating cytotoxic immune cell composition, activation status and toxins expression associate with white matter microstructure in bipolar disorder.

ABSTRACT: Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) show higher immuno-inflammatory setpoints, with in vivo alterations in white matter (WM) microstructure and post-mortem infiltration of T cells in the brain. Cytotoxic CD8⁺ T cells can enter and damage the brain in inflammatory disorders, but little is known in BD. Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between cytotoxic T cells and WM alterations in BD. In a sample of 83 inpatients with BD in an active phase of illness (68 depressive, 15 manic), we performed flow cytometry immunophenotyping to investigate frequencies, activation status, and expression of cytotoxic markers in CD8⁺ and tested for their association with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of WM microstructure. Frequencies of naïve and activated CD8^+<

SUBMITTER: Aggio V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10721611 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature