1. Lymphocyte subsets are influenced by positivity levels in healthy subjects before and after mild acute stress
- Author
-
Picchianti Diamanti Andrea, Ferlito Claudia, Guido Alessandri, Salemi Simonetta, Pasquali Vittorio, Pietrosanti Mario, Eros Aniballi, Raffaele D'Amelio, Michela Ileen Biondo, Gian Vittorio Caprara, Santoni Angela, Ziparo Vincenzo, Gerardo Salerno, Visco Vincenzo, Francesca Milanetti, Roberto Nisini, Germano Valentina, and Valeria Castellani
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,CD3 ,lymphocyte subsets ,positivity ,stress ,Immunology ,050109 social psychology ,Immunophenotyping ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Immune system ,Stress, Physiological ,T-Lymphocyte Subsets ,Mild stress ,Humans ,Immunology and Allergy ,Medicine ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Acute stress ,biology ,business.industry ,05 social sciences ,Healthy subjects ,Healthy Volunteers ,Lymphocyte Subsets ,Serum cytokine ,Immune System ,biology.protein ,Cytokines ,Biomarker (medicine) ,Female ,business ,Biomarkers ,Stress, Psychological ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Lymphocyte subsets - Abstract
In the current study, the possible association of positivity (POS), recently defined as general disposition to view life under positive outlook, with immune markers and post-stress modifications, was analyzed. Circulating lymphocyte subsets and serum cytokine levels were evaluated before and after a standard mild acute stress test, in 41 healthy students, previously selected by a questionnaire for their level of POS (high [POS-H] and low [POS-L]). The CD3+ and CD4+ cell frequency was higher in the POS-H students before and after acute stress. CD4+ subpopulation analysis revealed baseline higher terminally differentiated frequency in the POS-H, whereas higher effector memory frequency was present in the POS-L students. Moreover, the frequency of post-stress B cells was higher in the POS-H students. The mild-stress test was associated to an increase of the IL-10 mean values, while mean values of the other cytokines tested did not change significantly. It is tempting to speculate that IL-10 may work as biomarker of response to acute mild stress and that POS-H may be associated to a better capacity of the immune system to contrast the disturbing effects of mild acute stress. Yet further studies on lymphocyte subset absolute number and function of larger and different populations are needed to definitively prove these preliminary observations.
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF