Influences of Distress and Alcohol Consumption on the Development of a Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity Skin Test Response

Abstract

Everyday levels of distress predicted the capacity of the cellular arm of the immune system to exhibit recall responses to an antigen, when the experimental paradigm allowed the assessment of distress at the time of antigen sensitization. Moderate alcohol consumption independently affected cutaneous DTH.

Exercise Intensity and Duration Effects on In Vivo Immunity

“…After careful consideration, we chose to delay sensitization until 20 min after exercise to avoid possible confounding due to raised skin blood flow and sweating. One might also argue that another limitation is that we only took blood samples to characterize circulating cortisol at immediately after and 1 h after exercise, yet the DPCP sensitizing patch remained in place for 48 h. Work in young adults showed that the inhibitory effect of stress on the development of immune memory is particularly evident when stress is experienced at, or close to, the time of sensitization: This supports our choice of sample timing to characterize the circulating cortisol response in close proximity to the exercise stress (35).…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated the impact of the intensity and duration of continuous exercise stress on in vivo immunity in humans. Challenging the skin using novel antigens such as keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) (35) or diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP) (17) permits the investigation of the influence of stressors on in vivo immunity and allows rigorous control of both the dose and timing of sensitization. Using topical DPCP, we have recently shown that 2 h of moderate-intensity exercise decreases both the induction of immunity (j53%) in those with no prior exposure to DPCP and elicitation of immunity (j19%) in those who received repeated monthly DPCP exposures to boost responses to a reproducible plateau (17).…”

The association between alcohol consumption and contact sensitization in Danish adults: the Glostrup Allergy Study

“…Smith et al. 48 showed that alcohol intake reduced the probability of developing a delayed‐type hypersensitivity in 166 healthy individuals. Apparently, alcohol interferes with early cell surface‐associated signal transduction phosphorylation events leading to impaired IFN‐γ and IL‐12 secretion, whereas IL‐2 synthesis is almost unaffected 49–51 .…”

“…31 In addition, it has been indicated that alcohol consumption inhibits Th1-mediated immune responses both in vitro and in vivo (and in acute and chronic alcohol intake). [46][47][48] Smith et al 48 showed that alcohol intake reduced the probability of developing a delayedtype hypersensitivity in 166 healthy individuals. Apparently, alcohol interferes with early cell surface-associated signal transduction phosphorylation events leading to impaired IFN-c and IL-12 secretion, whereas IL-2 synthesis is almost unaffected.…”

Psychological factors, immune function and recovery from major surgery

“…Hospitalisation permits some control over these extraneous variables which can affect immune function in their own right (8,13), thereby complicating interpretations of research findings. Elective surgery represents such a stressor, as the amount of physical stress associated with a given surgical procedure is, presumably, similar for all patients.…”