Coordination of cortisol response to social evaluative threat with autonomic and inflammatory responses is moderated by stress appraisals and affect

Abstract

Recent approaches to stress regulation have emphasized coordination among multiple biological systems. This study builds on evidence that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity should be considered in coordination with other stress-sensitive biological systems to characterize healthy responses. Healthy African-Americans (n=115) completed the Trier Social Stress Test, and biological responses were assessed through salivary cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), alpha amylase (sAA), and C-reactive protein (sCRP). Multilevel modeling demonstrated that cortisol responses typically aligned with changes in DHEA-S, sAA, and sCRP across the session. At the same time, the degree of cortisol coordination with sAA and sCRP varied by participants’ subjective stress following the task; participants with higher secondary stress appraisals showed greater cortisol-sAA alignment, whereas those experiencing more negative affect showed greater cortisol-sCRP alignment. Results highlight the importance of a multisystem approach to stress and suggest that positive HPA axis coordination with the autonomic response, but not with the immune/inflammatory response, may be adaptive.

The cortisol:C-reactive protein ratio and negative affect reactivity in depressed adults.

“…A wealth of evidence suggests that inflammation and dysregulation of HPA axis are independently associated with MDD (Pariante & Lightman, 2008) including onset of MDD among at-risk individuals (Mannie, Harmer, & Cowen, 2007; Owens, et al, 2014). Only recently have studies begun to employ a multisystem approach to explore the complex biological underpinnings of MDD and vulnerability with preliminary results underscoring differences in patterns of neuro-immune perturbations associated with depressive subtypes (e.g., Lamers, et al, 2013; Laurent, et al, 2016) and gender-specific vulnerability. To date, however, no study had employed a multisystem approach when examining NA reactivity to stress as a function of depressive symptom severity.…”

“…Emerging evidence has suggested that depressive subtypes and vulnerabilities to depression are associated with distinct patterns of dysregulation between the HPA axis and immune response system (IRS) (Lamers, et al, 2013; Suarez, et al, 2014) and between the HPA axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS) (Laurent, Lucas, Pierce, Goetz, & Granger, 2016). Although different markers of system activities have been employed to evaluate individual system activities, the general conclusion derived by these study is that a disorganization between inter-related systems provides a more complete picture of underlying pathophysiology associated with MDD and vulnerability than dysregulation of any single system (Schumacher, Kirschbaum, Fydrich, & Strohle, 2013).…”

Adolescent temperament dimensions as stable prospective risk and protective factors for salivary C‐reactive protein

“…CRP can be detected in saliva (sCRP) and research has shown that CRP can pass from blood to saliva through gingival crevicular fluid, indicating that sCRP can be indicative of both local and systemic inflammation (Megson, Fitzsimmons, Dharmapatni, & Mark Bartold, ). Furthermore, several studies have found that sCRP is associated with measures of both psychological and physical health in children and adults (Cicchetti, Handley, & Rogosch, ; Goodson et al ., ; Laurent, Lucas, Pierce, Goetz, & Granger, ; Lucas et al ., ; Naidoo, Konkol, Biccard, McKune, & Dubose, ) as well as neural responses to emotional processing of stress (O'Connor, Irwin, & Wellisch, ), suggesting that it is also a useful measure of not only oral inflammation, but also more systemic health status.…”

Concurrent and prospective associations between HPA axis activity and depression symptoms in newlywed women

“…Indeed, only when complementary measurements of the endocrine milieu were incorporated into the analytical plan did relationships with depression emerge. These findings underscore the value of examining cortisol levels together with other hormonal responses (Bauer et al, 2002; Laurent et al, 2016; Mehta and Josephs, 2010; Mendes et al, 2007) that may modulate the effects of cortisol on emotional and behavioral health outcomes.…”

“…The assay used 100 μL of saliva per determination, had a lower limit of sensitivity of <43 pg/mL, standard curve range from 188.9 pg/mL to 15,300 pg/mL, an average intra-assay coefficient of variation of 7.3% and an inter-assay coefficient of variation of 7.6%. Following prior work (Laurent et al, 2016), we assessed the sulfated form (DHEA-S), which is more biologically active than DHEA.…”