Cognitive dysfunction and pro-inflammatory effect has been associated with major depressive disorder (MDD), but sex differences have seldom been studied. The study was to determine the sex difference of cognitive dysfunction and pro-inflammatory biomarkers among patients with MDD in Chinese Han population. 104 MDD patients (male n = 37, female n = 67) were included in the study. Their sociodemographic and clinical features, including age, body mass index (BMI), education, smoking, alcohol use, illness characteristics and medicine use were recorded. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to assess cognition. And we detected pro-inflammatory biomarkers Interleakin-1β (IL-1β), Interleakin-6 (IL-6) and C-reaction protein (CRP) levels by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. We found that male patients showed higher scores than female in MoCA, and performed better than female patients particularly in visuaspatial, naming, attention, orientation subscale. CRP and IL-1β levels showed no significant difference between male and female patients in MDD. However, Male's IL-6 level was significantly declined than female, negative closed associated with cognition in MOCA score. These results suggested that the difference in IL-6 could reflect a cognitive difference between male and female in MDD, and IL-6 elevation could represent a state indicator for cognitive ability particular in female MDD patients. And it maybe a biological treatment target in cognition dysfunction of female patients in MDD.
Keywords: Cognition; Major depressive disorder; Pro-inflammatory.
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