RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Inflammation can have social consequences, which may be relevant to inflammation's link with depression. The current study tests whether a typhoid vaccine increases feelings of social disconnection and avoidance behavior. METHOD: In two full-day visits at least three weeks apart, 172 postmenopausal breast cancer survivors (Stage I-IIIA) each received a typhoid capsular polysaccharide vaccination and a saline placebo injection in a random sequence. Blood was drawn prior to the injection, as well as every 90 min thereafter for 8 h to assess the inflammatory response (interleukin-6, IL-6; interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, IL-1Ra). At both visits, women completed the Social Connection Scale at 0 and 8.5 h post-vaccination as well as implicit and explicit social avoidance tasks at 7 h post-vaccination. RESULTS: The typhoid vaccine triggered rises in both inflammatory markers (ps < 0.01), but it did not impact feelings of social connection (p = .32), or performance on the implicit (p = .34) or explicit tasks (p = .37). Inflammatory rises did not predict feelings of social connection (ps > 0.64) or performance on explicit (ps > 0.73) or implicit (ps > 0.88) social avoidance tasks. CONCLUSION: Milder inflammatory stimuli may not affect social processes. Higher levels of inflammation or, relatedly, more sickness symptoms may be necessary to recapitulate prior findings of social avoidance.
Assuntos
Neoplasias da Mama , Sobreviventes de Câncer , Vacinas Tíficas-Paratíficas , Feminino , Humanos , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Comportamento SocialRESUMO
Although positive social relationships are assumed to relate to lower levels of chronic systemic inflammation, the empirical evidence on this association is mixed. This study examines whether perceived social support-giving (i.e., the belief that one can be available to give social support to others, henceforward referred to as perceived support-giving) moderates associations between social relationships and inflammation using data from the longitudinal follow-up of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the U.S. (MIDUS II). Middle-aged adults (N = 1054) completed self-report questionnaires on social integration, perceived support-availability from others, positive relations with others, perceived support-giving, socio-demographic information, and health-related information and provided blood samples for measurement of interleukin-6 (IL-6) as a marker of systemic inflammation. The results showed that perceived support-giving moderated the associations between IL-6 and indicators of positive social relationships, including social integration, perceived support-availability, and positive relations with others. Indicators of positive social relationships were associated with lower IL-6 among individuals higher, but not lower, in perceived support-giving. The moderating effects of perceived support-giving held after adjusting for socio-demographic and health-related covariates. Therefore, positive social relationships are associated with lower IL-6 only for individuals who believe they can give more support in those relationships. In addition, preliminary evidence indicated that the moderating effects of perceived support-giving might be further qualified by gender, being significant only in women.
Assuntos
Interleucina-6 , Relações Interpessoais , Apoio Social , Adulto , Biomarcadores , Feminino , Humanos , Inflamação , Interleucina-6/sangue , Pessoa de Meia-IdadeRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Exposure to racism and associated adversities, such as poverty, is hypothesized to contribute to racial inequities in health via stress and immune pathways. Furthermore, the effects of adversity may be more salient during sensitive developmental periods. Our study examined racial differences in stress and immune biomarkers during adolescence and the effects of exposure to economic adversity at distinct developmental time periods and cumulatively in accounting for potential racial differences. METHODS: Secondary analysis of the Adolescent Health and Development in Context study was conducted. Data were derived from self-administered surveys; interviews; smartphone-based, geographic-explicit ecological momentary assessment; stress biomarkers (evening salivary cortisol over six nights and hair cortisol); and immune biomarkers (salivary shedding of Epstein-Barr virus [EBV] DNA among EBV-positive adolescents). Current socioeconomic status measures included annual household income and caregiver education. Caregivers also reported experiences of bankruptcy, difficulty paying bills, receipt of food stamps/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/electronic benefit transfer, and job loss when the child was of ages birth-5 years, 6-10 years, and 11 years or older. An affirmative response to any item was defined as exposure to economic adversity for that developmental time period (yes/no). A cumulative economic adversity measure was calculated as the sum of exposures across developmental periods (0 = never exposed to 3 = exposed across all time periods). Descriptive and multivariable regression analyses were conducted, accounting for covariates. RESULTS: Black/African American adolescents had higher salivary cortisol concentration, higher hair cortisol concentration, and an increased odd of salivary shedding of EBV DNA compared to White adolescents. Racial differences were not attenuated by the current socioeconomic status or economic adversity (developmental period or cumulatively). DISCUSSION: Our study provides evidence that stress and immune biomarkers differ by race as early as adolescence and may be one pathway through which racism and associated adversities contribute to racial health inequities. Further research on the contribution of multiple adversities beyond poverty to racial inequities in physiological stress and health is critical for informing effective prevention and intervention efforts.
Assuntos
Biomarcadores/análise , Classe Social , Adolescente , Negro ou Afro-Americano/etnologia , Negro ou Afro-Americano/psicologia , Negro ou Afro-Americano/estatística & dados numéricos , Criança , Feminino , Herpesvirus Humano 4/imunologia , Herpesvirus Humano 4/patogenicidade , Humanos , Hidrocortisona/análise , Masculino , Ohio , Saliva/metabolismo , População Urbana/estatística & dados numéricosRESUMO
The oxytocin (OT) system, critically involved in social bonding, may also impinge on spirituality, which is the belief in a meaningful life imbued with a sense of connection to a Higher Power and/or the world. Midlife male participants (N = 83) were randomly assigned to receive intranasal OT or placebo. In exploratory analyses, participants were also genotyped for polymorphisms in two genes critical for OT signaling, the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR rs53576) and CD38 (rs6449182 and rs3796863). Results showed that intranasal OT increased self-reported spirituality on two separate measures and this effect remained significant a week later. It also boosted participants' experience of specific positive emotions during meditation, at both explicit and implicit levels. Furthermore, the effect of OT on spirituality was moderated by OT-related genotypes. These results provide the first experimental evidence that spirituality, endorsed by millions worldwide, appears to be supported by OT.
Assuntos
ADP-Ribosil Ciclase 1/genética , Meditação , Ocitocina/administração & dosagem , Receptores de Ocitocina/genética , Espiritualidade , Administração Intranasal , Adulto , Feminino , Genótipo , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Polimorfismo Genético , Fatores Sexuais , Transdução de Sinais/efeitos dos fármacos , Transdução de Sinais/genéticaRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Mindfulness meditation training interventions have been shown to improve markers of health, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not known. Building on initial cross-sectional research showing that mindfulness meditation may increase default mode network (DMN) resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with regions important in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC]), here we test whether mindfulness meditation training increases DMN-dlPFC rsFC and whether these rsFC alterations prospectively explain improvements in interleukin (IL)-6 in a randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Stressed job-seeking unemployed community adults (n = 35) were randomized to either a 3-day intensive residential mindfulness meditation or relaxation training program. Participants completed a 5-minute resting-state scan before and after the intervention program. Participants also provided blood samples at preintervention and at 4-month follow-up, which were assayed for circulating IL-6, a biomarker of systemic inflammation. RESULTS: We tested for alterations in DMN rsFC using a posterior cingulate cortex seed-based analysis and found that mindfulness meditation training, and not relaxation training, increased posterior cingulate cortex rsFC with left dlPFC (p < .05, corrected). These pretraining to posttraining alterations in posterior cingulate cortex-dlPFC rsFC statistically mediated mindfulness meditation training improvements in IL-6 at 4-month follow-up. Specifically, these alterations in rsFC statistically explained 30% of the overall mindfulness meditation training effects on IL-6 at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide the first evidence that mindfulness meditation training functionally couples the DMN with a region known to be important in top-down executive control at rest (left dlPFC), which, in turn, is associated with improvements in a marker of inflammatory disease risk.
Assuntos
Conectoma/métodos , Giro do Cíngulo/fisiologia , Inflamação/terapia , Interleucina-6/sangue , Meditação/métodos , Atenção Plena/métodos , Avaliação de Resultados em Cuidados de Saúde , Córtex Pré-Frontal/fisiologia , Estresse Psicológico/terapia , Adulto , Feminino , Humanos , Inflamação/sangue , Imageamento por Ressonância Magnética , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Terapia de Relaxamento/métodos , Estresse Psicológico/sangue , Desemprego/psicologiaRESUMO
Oxytocin is thought to play a central role in promoting close social bonds via influence on social interactions. The current investigation targeted interactions involving expressed gratitude between members of romantic relationships because recent evidence suggests gratitude and its expression provides behavioral and psychological 'glue' to bind individuals closer together. Specifically, we took a genetic approach to test the hypothesis that social interactions involving expressed gratitude would be associated with variation in a gene, CD38, which has been shown to affect oxytocin secretion. A polymorphism (rs6449182) that affects CD38 expression was significantly associated with global relationship satisfaction, perceived partner responsiveness and positive emotions (particularly love) after lab-based interactions, observed behavioral expression of gratitude toward a romantic partner in the lab, and frequency of expressed gratitude in daily life. A separate polymorphism in CD38 (rs3796863) previously associated with plasma oxytocin levels and social engagement was also associated with perceived responsiveness in the benefactor after an expression of gratitude. The combined influence of the two polymorphisms was associated with a broad range of gratitude-related behaviors and feelings. The consistent pattern of findings suggests that the oxytocin system is associated with solidifying the glue that binds adults into meaningful and important relationships.
Assuntos
ADP-Ribosil Ciclase 1/genética , Emoções/fisiologia , Relações Interpessoais , Apego ao Objeto , Ocitocina/sangue , Polimorfismo de Nucleotídeo Único/genética , ADP-Ribosil Ciclase 1/metabolismo , Adolescente , Adulto , Análise de Variância , Feminino , Genótipo , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Observação , RNA Mensageiro/metabolismo , Análise de Regressão , Inquéritos e Questionários , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Although stress-induced increases in inflammation have been implicated in several major disorders, including cardiovascular disease and depression, the neurocognitive pathways that underlie inflammatory responses to stress remain largely unknown. To examine these processes, we recruited 124 healthy young adult participants to complete a laboratory-based social stressor while markers of inflammatory activity were obtained from oral fluids. A subset of participants (n = 31) later completed an fMRI session in which their neural responses to social rejection were assessed. As predicted, exposure to the laboratory-based social stressor was associated with significant increases in two markers of inflammatory activity, namely a soluble receptor for tumor necrosis factor-alpha (sTNFalphaRII) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). In the neuroimaging subsample, greater increases in sTNFalphaRII (but not IL-6) were associated with greater activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, brain regions that have previously been associated with processing rejection-related distress and negative affect. These data thus elucidate a neurocognitive pathway that may be involved in potentiated inflammatory responses to acute social stress. As such, they have implications for understanding how social stressors may promote susceptibility to diseases with an inflammatory component.
Assuntos
Encéfalo/fisiopatologia , Inflamação/fisiopatologia , Vias Neurais/fisiologia , Alienação Social/psicologia , Estresse Psicológico/fisiopatologia , Adolescente , Adulto , Encéfalo/anatomia & histologia , Depressão , Ensaio de Imunoadsorção Enzimática , Exsudatos e Transudatos/química , Feminino , Humanos , Interleucina-6/análise , Relações Interpessoais , Imageamento por Ressonância Magnética , Masculino , Mucosa Bucal/química , Vias Neurais/anatomia & histologia , Receptores Tipo II do Fator de Necrose Tumoral/análise , Rejeição em Psicologia , Solubilidade , Fator de Necrose Tumoral alfa/análise , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Increases in basal ganglia iron are well documented for neurodegenerative diseases but have not been associated with methamphetamine (METH). In this study, vervet monkeys that received two doses of METH (2 mg/kg, intramuscularly, 6 h apart) showed at 1 month, iron increases in substantia nigra pars reticulata and globus pallidus, with concurrent increases of ferritin-immunoreactivity and decreases of tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactivity in substantia nigra. At 1.5 years, substantia nigra tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactivity had recovered while iron and ferritin-immunoreactivity increases persisted. Globus pallidus and substantia nigra iron levels of the adult METH-exposed animals (age 5-9 years) were now comparable with those of drug-naive, aged animals (19-22 years), suggesting an aging-related condition that might render those regions more vulnerable to oxidative stress.