Acute psychological stress increases peripheral blood CD3+CD56+ natural killer T cells in healthy men: possible implications for the development and treatment of allergic and autoimmune disorders. (July 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Atanackovic, Djordje; Nowottne, Ulrike; Freier, Eva; Weber, Cora Stefanie; Meyer, Sabrina; Bartels, Katrin; Hildebrandt, York; Cao, Yanran; Kröger, Nicolaus; Brunner-Weinzierl, Monika Christine; Bokemeyer, Carsten; Deter, Hans-Christian
• Is Part Of: Stress. Volume 16:Number 4(2013:Jul.)
• Page Start: 421
• Page End: 428
• Publication Date: 2013-07
• Subjects: Stress (Physiology) -- Periodicals; 616.98
• DOI: 10.3109/10253890.2013.777702
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1025-3890

Abstract

<abstract> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Acute psychological stress has primarily been investigated regarding its effects on conventional lymphocytes such as natural killer (NK) cells and CD4<sup>+</sup> and CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells. However, it might be important to focus on more "specialized" lymphocyte subsets, playing a role, for instance, in allergic conditions and autoimmunity, to identify links between stress, the immune system and somatic diseases. Using flow cytometry we determined frequencies of circulating T helper (Th)1-type (CD226<sup>+</sup>) and Th2-type (CRTH2<sup>+</sup>) T cells, γδ T cells, conventional CD56<sup>+</sup> natural killer T (NKT) cells and invariant NKT cells (iNKT) in healthy young males (<italic>N</italic> = 31; median age 26 years) undergoing a laboratory computer-based stressor lasting 12 min. We found that acute psychological stress induced a prolonged increase in CD4<sup>+</sup> and CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells expressing a Th2 phenotype. We also detected an acute increase in CD4<sup>−</sup> and CD8<sup>−</sup> double negative γδ T cells. Finally, we found that the well-known increase in NK cells under stressful conditions was paralleled by a significant increase in numbers of conventional CD56<sup>+</sup> NKT cells. In contrast, numbers of iNKT was not altered by stress. This study adds further evidence to a psychoneuroimmunological model proposing that under stressful conditions certain lymphocyte subsets, including iNKT and less mature T cells, are retained in lymphoid tissues while antigen-experienced effector-type T cells with a Th2 phenotype, γδ T cells and conventional CD56<sup>+</sup> NKT cells are mobilized into the peripheral blood. We suggest that in the case of frequent stress exposure, this might result in the promotion of, for example, allergic conditions.</p> </abstract>