Heterogeneity in Neuroendocrine and Immune Responses to Brief PsychologicalStressors as a Function of Autonomic Cardiac Activation

Abstract

Human responses to brief psychological stressors are characterized by changes and large individual differences in autonomic, neuroendocrine, and immune function. The authors examined the effects of brief psychological stressors on cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and cellular immune response in 22 older women to investigate the common effects of stress across systems. They also used interindividual variation in heart rate reactivity, cardiac sympathetic reactivity (as indexed by preejection period reactivity in their reactivity paradigm), and cardiac vagal reactivity (as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity) to explore the heterogeneity in human responses to brief psychological stressors. The results revealed that brief psychological stressors heightened cardiac activation, elevated plasma catecholamine concentrations, and affected the cellular immune response. It was also found that individuals characterized by high, relative to low, cardiac sympathetic reactivity showed higher stress-related changes in adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol plasma levels but comparable changes in epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations. These data suggest that the effects of psychological stressors on cardiovascular and cellular immune response are governed by coordinated regulatory mechanism(s) and that going beyond the simple notion of heart rate reactivity to examine neural substrates may shed light on the interrelationships among and the regulatory mechanisms for the autonomic, endocrine, and immune responses to stressors.

Salivary MUC5B-Mediated Adherence (Ex Vivo) of Helicobacter pylori During Acute Stress

“…Most laboratory studies in psychoneuroimmunology make use of stressors that require mental effort and that are characterized by their potential to evoke a classic fight-flight cardiovascular response pattern (eg, mental arithmetic, Stroop task, and reaction tasks) (77)(78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84). This clearly being the dominant paradigm, it may become overlooked that there is a body of literature showing that many stressful situations do not necessarily elicit a substantial cardiovascular response and may even be associated with a reduced HR (85)(86)(87)(88)(89).…”

Chronic stress down-regulates growth hormone gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of older adults

“…We used a brief laboratory stress protocol that has produced significant elevations in catecholamine levels and autonomic responses in young and elderly individuals (Sgoutas-Emch et al, 1994;Cacioppo et al, 1995). This stress protocol was employed to determine if the endocrine changes (e.g., reactivity in the SAM and HPA axis) to these stressors was correlated with group differences in GH mRNA expression in the PBMCs.…”

“…Impedance and electrocardiographic measurements were recorded. Following these baseline measures, subjects received instructions for a 6-min speech task and a 6-rain mental arithmetic task (SgoutasEmch et al, 1994;Cacioppo et al, 1995). The second stressor immediately followed completion of the first, and the order of these stressors was counterbalanced across subjects.…”

Moods in everyday situations: Effects of combinations of different arousal-related factors

“…In some studies, brief psychological stressors have elicited hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity manifested in elevated levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone [3] or cortisol [6].…”