So far few studies have been conducted

So far few studies have been conducted on the role of chemokines in patients with PTSD and avoidant personality disorders. Ogłodek et al. [10] in her studies found an increase in the level of the chemokine CCL-5 in patients with avoidant personality disorder and general anxiety disorder (GAD) as compared with patients suffering from GAD. In another study by Mommersteeg et al. [11] an increase in the levels of the chemokines CCL-5 in men with PTSD was revealed. However, the subjects were diagnosed only with PTSD excluding personality disorders, and the studied group was confined to males. Moreover, studies conducted so far involved only changes in the CCL-5 levels, omitting changes, if any, in the levels of the receptors CCR-5. The second chemokine secreted in response to proinflammatory chemokines is SDF-1. The chemokine SDF-1 is produced by bone marrow stromal cells. SDF-1 forms a complex with the C-X-C chemokine receptor type-4 (CXCR-4), expressed in hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus and influencing neurohormonal control of these motilin receptor structures [12]. The studies conducted so far revealed an SDF-1 increase in patients with GAD concurrent with avoidant personality disorders (APD), yet no studies were conducted on the changes in the level of this chemokine in patients with PTSD and personality disorders. Similarly to the chemokine SDF-1, no studies have been found in the literature on the change in the levels of the chemokine receptors CXCR-4 in patients with PTSD, or APD, as well as PTSD and APD. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is also involved in development of the inflammatory reaction in consequence of chronic stress. It is mainly released by monocytes and macrophages stimulated by interleukin-1 and other proinflammatory cytokines. During the inflammatory reaction in the body, soluble interleukin-6 receptor (sIL-6R) is released from neutrophils and monocytes surface. Excessive or prolonged production of IL-6 results in development of the chronic inflammatory reaction [13]. The elevated IL-6 level in patients with PTSD was featured by Gill et al. [14] and McCanlies et al. [15]. The studied group of patients was diagnosed only with PTSD without concomitant personality disorders. What is more, a comparative analysis of the IL-6 level between the groups of men and women was not performed. An increase in the IL-6 level in men with PTSD was also found by Mommersteeg et al. [11], which constitutes confirmation of the previous study results.
Method
Results Table 1 presents the levels of chemokines CCL-5 and CXCL-12, chemokine receptors CCR-5 and CXCR-4, and IL-6 of all studied and control groups. Comparison of the results obtained for the above groups, indicates statistically significant differences between the groups (p<0.0001), both for women and for men. Comparing levels of the chemokine CCL-5 in women and men, and in relevant control groups, a significant increase in this chemokine level was found for people with PTSD and concurrent APD and in the group with PTSD alone. Furthermore, for people of both sexes codominance was found that the CCL-5 level increase was higher in people with PTSD accompanied by the avoidant personality disorder, versus people with PTSD alone. The largest increase in this chemokine level was observed in the group of women with PTSD and the avoidant personality. These differences were statistically significant. For the chemokine SDF-1, statistically significant differences were also observed for women and men versus the control group. Both in women and in men with PTSD, the increase in the level of this chemokine was found, where the SDF-1 levels were even higher in people with PTSD and concurrent APD. It should be noted that the highest increase in the level of this chemokine was found in the group of women diagnosed with PTSD and APD, similarly as for the chemokine CCL-5. An increase in the levels of the chemokines CCL-5 and SDF-1 was not noted in either group of women or men with APD as compared with the control group. However, an increase in the levels of the chemokines CCL-5 and SDF-1 was observed in the group of women and men with APD and PTSD versus the group of women and men diagnosed with APD alone. This increase was higher in the case of the chemokine CCL-5 than chemokine SDF-1, and slightly higher in the group of women (2.9 times) than in the group of men (2.7 times).