Acute Psychological Stress Simultaneously Alters Hormone Levels, Recruitment of Lymphocyte Subsets, and Production of Reactive Oxygen Species

Abstract

Very little is known about the effects of acute psychological stress on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by human phagocytic cells and the interplay between subjectively perceived stress, mediating hormones, variations in the number of peripheral leukocytes and ROS production. We measured psychological reactions, cardiovascular parameters, plasma catecholamines, plasma prolactin and cortisol as well as peripheral lymphocyte subsets in 13 experimental subjects undergoing a brief psychological stressor, and production of ROS, as indicated by chemiluminescence (CL), in stressed subjects and in healthy controls. The stressor elevated anger (p<0.01) and cardiovascular activation (p<0.01). There were significant changes in plasma levels of cortisol (p<0.01) and prolactin (p<0.001). During psychological stress natural killer (NK) cells (p<0.01) and CD8/CD38 cells (p<0.05) increased and returned to baseline only 25 minutes later. Significant changes in the number of naive CD4+/CD45RA+ (p<0.01) and antigen-experienced CD8+/CD45RO+ T cells (p<0.05) occurred. Subjects with stronger cardiovascular reaction showed higher stress-related plasma levels of norepinephrine (p<0.05) and were mainly responsible for the increase in NK cells. We observed a significantly reduced production of ROS following the stress test (p<0.05). Our results show that psychological stress is expressed simultaneously on psychological, hormonal and immunological levels of the organism. We show the existence of a circadian rhythm leading to a pronounced increase in CL during the morning hours. This first study taking this circadian rhythm in account revealed a significant suppressive effect of stress on ROS production.

Underlying inflammation has no impact on the oxidative stress response to acute mental stress

“…Previous studies have indicated an increase (Bagchi et al, 1999;Sivonova et al, 2004), decrease (Atanackovic et al, 2002;Yamaguchia et al, 2002) and no change (Huang et al, 2010) in indices of oxidative stress (i.e. plasma markers and ROS levels) in response to acute mental stress and during periods of lifestyle stress.…”

“…In addition, stressful situations (i.e. exam periods (Sivonova et al, 2004) and public speaking (Yamaguchia et al, 2002)) and study model (human (Atanackovic et al, 2002) and animal (Bagchi et al, 1999) models) have varied significantly between studies, making it hard to draw valid and robust conclusions. To our knowledge, this was the first study utilising well standardized laboratory models of both acute inflammation and mental stress to test the sole influence of baseline inflammation on the oxidative stress responses to mental stress in humans.…”

“…Conversely, individuals delivering public speeches showed increased urinary concentrations of bilirubin oxidative metabolite, an abundant antioxidant compound, compared to a control group who did not perform a public speaking task (Yamaguchia et al, 2002). Similar disparity exists with acute mental stress and (Atanackovic et al, 2002) production. Collectively, these studies warrant careful interpretation due the different study designs, categorisations of stress, measures of oxidative stress and the time points assessed.…”

The Effects of Massage Therapy on the Immune, Hematological and Psychological State of Adult Subjects

“…In addition, other studies have reported that stress increases the proportion of NK cells 21,22) . The decrease in NK cell counts after massage suggests that massage therapy may influence immune system, although it was not necessarily confirmed that massage activated immune system.…”

Effects of Psychological Stress from a National License Examination on the Urine 8-Hydroxy-Deoxyguanosine Levels in Young Female Students, Taking into Account the Menstrual Cycle

“…Tools to test psychological stress are mainly questionnaires like the STAI and SDS, which rely on the subjective evaluations of subjects. In the search for objective assessment measures, the relationship between oxidative stress biomarkers and psychological stress has attracted attention in recent years [6] [7].…”