Psychophysiological correlates of systemic inflammation in black and white men

Abstract

Inflammation plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and levels of circulating inflammatory markers are associated with future CVD risk. However, the physiological mechanisms that control systemic levels of circulating inflammatory markers are not well understood. Here, we explore possible autonomic nervous system mechanisms by testing whether resting and stressor-evoked cardiovascular responses are associated with two markers of systemic inflammation: interleukin(IL)-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP). Subjects were 159 Black and 129 White men (M = 33.0 years) who completed a laboratory protocol including an anger recall speech task. Electrocardiography and impedance cardiography data were collected during a resting baseline, the speech task, and a final recovery period. Hierarchical regressions tested whether resting or stressor-evoked levels of heart rate (HR), high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), pre-ejection period (PEP), and pulse transit time (PTT) were associated with CRP or IL-6. Higher resting HR was associated with higher CRP (β = .19, p = .003) and IL-6 (β = .13, p < .05). Similarly, shorter resting PTT was associated with higher CRP (β = −.21, p < .001) and IL-6 (β = −.14, p = .02). In addition, greater stressor-evoked decreases in HF-HRV were associated with higher CRP (β = −.14, p = .01). Associations were independent of age, race, body mass index (BMI), smoking behavior, and socioeconomic status. Resting HF-HRV and PEP were also associated with CRP and IL-6, but associations were not significant after controlling for BMI and smoking behavior. These findings indicate that resting HR and PTT, as well stressor-evoked HF-HRV reactivity, are associated with systemic inflammation. Our results suggest that both tonic and stressor-evoked sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity may contribute to regulation of systemic inflammation.

Autonomic regulation of systemic inflammation in humans: A multi-center, blinded observational cohort study

“…Our findings are therefore in keeping with several preceding studies using heart rate variability as a measure of autonomic imbalance in individuals at risk of disease progression, where a significant relationship between increased serum hsCRP and HRV was reported. (Anan et al, 2005;Frasure-Smith et al, 2009;Gunterberg et al, 2016;Kon et al, 2006;Lockwood et al, 2017) However, the hsCRP finding reported in this manuscript should be tempered by the findings of both NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) and MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) studies, which showed significant short-term intra-individual variability in plasma hsCRP levels. (Bower et al, 2012;DeGoma et al, 2012) The chief novelty of this study is the use of HRV-independent measures of autonomic function evoked by exercise, plus the generalizable, large scale interrogation of systemic inflammation in parallel with two separate, but concomitant, measures of sympathetic and parasympathetic function.…”

Dual impedance cardiography: An inexpensive and reliable method to assess arterial stiffness

“…Studies adopting these impedance techniques have demonstrated the utility of PWV to track with other related health factors including childhood socioeconomic status and cardiometabolic risk (Koivistoinen et al., 2011; Puolakka et al., 2017), changes in ideal cardiovascular health behaviors (e.g., smoking, physical activity, etc. ; Aatola et al., 2014), as well as cross‐sectional associations with markers of inflammation (i.e., interleukin‐6 and C‐reactive protein; Lockwood et al., 2017). However, Kööbi and colleagues (2003) have noted that the whole‐body ICG method is partially limited by the fact it does not reflect the beginning of pulse transmission in the aortic arch precisely enough, resulting in a slight overestimation of PWV.…”

Effects of the Trier Social Stress Test on the distributions of IL-6 and MAP levels

“…The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) paradigm has been used as a laboratory test to induce acute psychological stress, whose physiological effects have been documented in several investigations (Allen et al., 2014). Some studies have focused on the sympathetic autonomic activity and the inflammatory response of interleukin 6 (IL-6) pre-post TSST (Cooper et al., 2015; Lockwood et al., 2017).…”