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. 2025 Aug 13;25(1):338.
doi: 10.1186/s12883-025-04319-w.

Migraine and neuroinflammation: correlation of adipokines and cytokines with clinical features

Can Ulutaş  1 , Buse Rahime Hasırcı Bayır  2 , Yılmaz Çetinkaya  2 , Eray Metin Güler  2   3 , Dilek Ağırcan  4 , Beyza Nur Özkan  3
Affiliations

Migraine and neuroinflammation: correlation of adipokines and cytokines with clinical features

Can Ulutaş et al. BMC Neurol. .

Abstract

Objective: Migraine is one of the most disabling conditions affecting the quality of life in society. The pathophysiology of migraine is not yet fully understood, but neuroinflammation is thought to play an important role. The aim of our study is to investigate the potential biomarker properties of adipokines and cytokines in migraine and to assess their relationship with clinical features, including headache frequency, severity, disability scores.

Materials and methods: The study included a total of 90 participants: 30 with episodic migraines (EM), 30 with chronic migraines(CM), and 30 healthy volunteers, all aged between 18 and 50 years. Data were collected on patients age, sex, migraine characteristics (pain location, type), attack frequency over the past 3 months, duration of the disease, attack severity, and body mass index. During the interictal period, blood levels of high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin, leptin, resistin, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β were measured using ELISA kits.

Results: The age, sex, and body mass index between the patient and control groups were similar. Levels of HMW-adiponectin, resistin, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β were significantly higher in the patient group compared to the control group (p < 0.001 for each). HMW-adiponectin and IL-6 levels were significantly higher in CM patients compared to the EM group (p = 0.004 and p < 0.001, respectively). Additionally, adiponectin and IL-6 levels were positively correlated with the number of painful days, and IL-6 and leptin levels correlated with MIDAS scores.

Conclusions: The higher levels of cytokines and adipokines, in migraine patients compared to the control group suggest a potential role of neuroinflammation in migraine pathophysiology. The elevated levels of HMW-adiponectin and IL-6 in CM patients indicate that these molecules may be associated with the mechanisms involved in the chronification of migraine and pain burden.

Keywords: Adipokines; Cytokines; Migraine; Neuroinflammation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Our study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki after obtaining ethical approval from the University of Health Sciences Hamidiye Scientific Research Ethics Committee (approval number 23/377, dated 12/07/2023). At the beginning of the study, participants were provided with an informed consent form, which they read and signed voluntarily. Consent for publication: All participants provided written informed consent for publication of their anonymized data. No identifiable personal information is included in this article. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart illustrating patient screening, eligibility assessment, and the final composition of the study sample. ICHD: International Classification of Headache Disorders
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
ROC curve analysis of HMW-adiponectin and IL-6 for distinguishing chronic migraine from episodic migraine
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Predictive performance for CM of HMW-Adiponectin and IL6 at their best cut-off values. PPV = Positive Predictive Value. NPV = Negative Predictive Value
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Heatmap analysis of correlations between clinical parameters and molecular markers. * Values indicate p-values
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