Association of circulating TNF-α and IL-6 with ageing and parkinsonism

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Abstract
We propose that the increase in TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the brain in idiopathic parkinsonism is in response to a peripheral immune/ inflammatory process, so ubiquitous as to be responsible for the resemblance between ageing and parkinsonism. Circulating cytokine was measured in 78 subjects with idiopathic parkinsonism and 140 without, aged 30 to 90 years, all obeying inclusion/exclusion criteria. Serum TNF-alpha increased (P10 years of ageing (28(-3, 69)%), but was not immediately related to between-subject differences in performance. Ageing and pathogenetic insult may be confounded, age being a progression, not a risk, factor.