Am J Psychiatry 1992; 149:694-696
Copyright © 1992 by American Psychiatric Association
Abnormal diurnal variation in circulating natural killer cell phenotypes and cytotoxic activity in major depression
JM Petitto, JD Folds, H Ozer, D Quade and DL Evans
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
This investigation tested the hypothesis that depressed patients have
abnormal diurnal variation of natural killer (NK) cell measures. The
diurnal variation of levels of Leu-11 NK cells and NK cytotoxic activity
was significantly less in 24 patients with major depression than in 24
normal comparison subjects. These findings provide evidence that aspects of
immune, as well as neural and endocrine, chronobiology are abnormal in
depression.
