No association between blood-based markers of immune system and migraine status: a population-based cohort study

Background: 

Although some evidence implicates the immune system in migraine attacks, its role during attack-free periods remains largely unexplored. Therefore, we assessed the association between the immune system and migraine status. 

Methods: 

From the population-based Rotterdam Study, we included 6593 participants who underwent blood sampling and migraine assessments. In the blood samples, we measured white blood-cell-based immune markers. As a marker for the innate immune system, granulocyte and platelet counts were determined, whereas lymphocyte counts were used as a marker for the adaptive immune system. Migraine was assessed using a validated questionnaire based on ICHD-2 criteria. We investigated associations between blood-cell counts and migraine using logistic regression models adjusting for age, sex and other variables. 

Results: 

Mean age of participants was 65.6 ± 11.2 years and 56.7% were female. The lifetime prevalence of migraine was 15.1% (995/6593). We found no statistically significant associations between granulocyte (odds ratio [OR] per standard deviation increase 1.01 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 0.93–1.09), platelet (OR 1.01 CI: 0.94–1.09) or lymphocyte counts (OR 1.01 CI: 0.93–1.08) and migraine status.

Conclusions: 

Our results do not support an association between white blood-cell-based immunity markers and migraine status.