Acute mental stress elicits delayed increases in circulating inflammatory cytokine levels
Open accessAbstract
The influence of acute mental stress on cardiovascular responses and concentrations of inflammatory cytokines up to 2 h later was assessed in 12 subjects exposed to stress and in eight control subjects. Beat-by-beat recordings of finger blood pressure and heart rate were made at rest and during two behavioural tasks (colour-word interference and mirror tracing). Blood was drawn after adaptation and at 45 min and 2 h after the tasks, and assayed for interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), C-reactive protein (CRP) and haematocrit. Saliva was sampled periodically and assayed for free cortisol. The tasks were rated as stressful by the participants. The stress group showed significant increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (mean rises of 16.4+/-12.3 and 12.6+/-6.9 mmHg respectively) and heart rate (5.39+/-5.3 beats/min); these values returned to baseline during the recovery period. The IL-6 concentration was increased by 56% at 2 h after the tasks (P<0.05), while IL-1Ra was increased by 12.3% (P<0.01). No changes in cardiovascular variables or cytokine concentrations were observed in the control subjects, and haematocrit did not change. The magnitude of blood pressure responses during tasks was correlated positively with the IL-6 concentration after 45 min (r=0.70, P<0.05), and with the IL-1Ra concentration after 2 h (r=0.63, P<0.05). Increases in TNF-alpha after 2 h were correlated with heart rate res…
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There is evidence that cytokines do not routinely change across an hour in the absence of an intervention.
“However, there is evidence that cytokines do not routinely change across an hour in the absence of an intervention [43–45].”
From Singing modulates mood, stress, cortisol, cytokine and neuropeptide activity in cancer patients and carers (2016) · cites this paper as [45]
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- Authors
- STEPTOE, A., WILLEMSEN, G., OWEN, N., FLOWER, L., & MOHAMED-ALI, V.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Department of Medicine, University College London, Whittington Campus, London N19 3UA, U.K.
- Venue
- Clinical Science
- Publisher
- Portland Press Ltd.
- Published
- 2001-07-25
- Volume
- 101
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 185-192
- ISSN
- 0143-5221 (ISSN-L)
- 1470-8736
- OpenAlex
- W2104238008
- Cited by
- 354
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 8.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.vu.nl
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Clinical Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- British Heart Foundation
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Keywords
- acute psychological stress, inflammatory cytokines, interleukin-6, TNF-α, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, C-reactive protein, blood pressure response, heart rate, sympathetic response, individual differences, cortisol
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Analysis of Variance, Blood Pressure, C-Reactive Protein, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Heart Rate, Hematocrit, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Male, Middle Aged, Saliva, Stress, Psychological, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha, Interleukin-6, Case-Control Studies, Cytokines, Receptors, Interleukin-1
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