The effects of acute psychological stress on lymphocyte adhesion molecule expression and density in cardiac versus vascular reactors.

This study examined the effects of acute psychological stress on lymphocyte subsets and their differential changes according to their cell adhesion molecule expression in cardiac versus vascular reactors. We classified 49 subjects into cardiac or vascular reactors based on the participants' cardiac output or total peripheral resistance reactivity to a speech presentation task. Analysis demonstrated that there were no significant differences in lymphocyte counts or adhesion molecule expression between cardiac and vascular reactors at rest. Cardiac reactors showed a significant decrease of surface density of CD62L on mixed lymphocytes (p <.001) as well as on CD4 (p <.01) and CD8 T-cells (p <.001). There was also a disproportionate increase in the number of CD62L(-) T cells compared to CD62L(+) T cells only in cardiac reactors (p <.001). There were no significant effects of the stressor observed in vascular responders. The findings replicate previous studies demonstrating associations between cardiovascular and immune responses to acute stress and extends those findings by suggesting that the relationship is more significant in individuals who increase their blood pressure primarily through a cardiac mechanism. Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).