Changes And Clinical Significance Of Serum BDNF,CORT And BDNF/CORT Ratio Levels Among Patients With Depression

Objective: To investigate the serum level of brain-derived neurotrophicfactors (BDNF), cortisol (CORT) and BDNF/CORT ratio among patients withdepression, and analyze their relevance with gender, age, age of onset, diseasecourse, scores of HAMD and scores of LES.Methods: From March2011to June2012,80cases of the hospitalized inTianjin Mental Health Center and Affiliated Hospital of Armed Police ForceLogestics Institue were chosen as the depression group. Patients withdepression are in line with DSM-Ⅳ and CCMD-3diagnostic criteria. Thesepatients’ ages varied from20to65years old,40cases each for men andwomen, with secondary or higher education. We used the HAMD-24Depression Scale to assess the patients’depressive symptoms and used theLES to assess the patinets’stress and living circumstances. The normal controlgroup included80healthy volunteers from Affiliated Hospital of the ArmedPolice Logestics Institue. We collected10ml forearm venous blood, andcentrifugal, aggregation, collecting serum after the natural cryopreservation,for spare. We tested the samples of both the depression group and the normalcontrol group via ELISA in accordance with the instruction and measured ODon microplate reader and calculated the concentration of BDNF and CORT.Statistical software SPSS16.0was used to analyze Data. A comparisonbetween the two groups selected independent samples t-test; measurementdata of correlation analysis among multiple variables used method Pearson. P＜0.05indicated that the difference was statistically significant.Results:1. The change and clinical significance of the serum BDNFlevel of depression. The BDNF serum concentration of depression group is37.78±7.63ng/ml,48.08±8.15ng／ml in normal control group. Thedifference between patients group and control group was statistically significant (P＜0.01).2. The change and clinical significance of the serum CORT level ofdepression. The CORT serum concentration of depression group is109.31±15.67ng/ml,73.60±17.13ng／ml in normal control group. The differencebetween patients group and control group was statistically significant (P＜0.01).3. The change and clinical significance of the serum BDNF/CORT ratiolevel of depression. The serum BDNF/CORT ratio of depression group is0.35±0.08,0.69±0.20in normal control group. The difference between patientsgroup and control group was statistically significant (P＜0.01).4. According to the analysis of the relation among the serum BDNF level,disease course and symptoms of patients with depression, the serum BDNFlevel of depression is negatively correlated with scores of HAMD (r=﹣0.989,P＜0.01), negatively correlated with disease course (r=﹣0.908, P＜0.01).5. According to the analysis of the relation among the serum CORT level,age, age of onset and symptoms of patients with depression, the serum CORTlevel of depression is negatively correlated with age (r=﹣0.508, P＜0.01),negatively correlated with age of onset (r=﹣0.921, P＜0.01), positivelycorrelated with scores of LES (r=0.981, P＜0.01).6. According to the analysis of the relation among the serumBDNF/CORT level, age, age of onset, disease course and symptoms ofpatients with depression, the serum BDNF/CORT level of depression ispositively correlated with age (r=0.363, P＜0.01), negatively correlated withage of onset (r=﹣0.401, P＜0.01), negatively correlated with disease course(r=﹣0.715, P＜0.01), negatively correlated with scores of HAMD (r=﹣0.763, P＜0.01), negatively correlated with scores of LES (r=﹣0.507, P＜0.01).Conclusions:1. Patients with Depression have lower serum BDNF level,higher serum CORT level and lower serum BDNF/CORT level than normalpopulation.2. The serum BDNF level of depression is negatively correlated with scores of HAMD, positively correlated with disease course.3. The serum CORT level of depression is negatively correlated with ageand age of onset, positively correlated with disease course.4. The serum BDNF/CORT level of depression is positively correlatedwith age, negatively correlated with age of onset, disease course, scores ofHAMD, scores of LES.