Gender differences in stimulated cytokine production following acute psychological stress

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that acute psychological stress modulates inflammatory competence; however, not all findings are consistent. Gender is one factor that may impact magnitude of response. To explore this possibility, we examined the effects of acute mental stress on lipopolysaccharideinduced production of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1 β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α among a relatively healthy sample of midlife men (n=28) and women (n=34). Blood samples for the assessment of cytokine production were drawn before, immediately after and 30 minutes following subjects' performance of an evaluative speech task. Relative to baseline evaluations, the speech stressor elicited a significant increase in stimulated production of all 3 proinflammatory cytokines, as measured 30 minutes following the end of the task. There were no gender differences in the magnitude of this effect. However, men showed a significant decrease in cytokine production from before to immediately following the stressor, whereas women showed no change across this period. Menopausal status partially accounted for these gender differences, with postmenopausal women displaying greater increases in IL-6 and TNF-α production from baselineto-post task when compared to men. These data provide further evidence that acute psychological stress primes the immune system to mount larger inflammatory responses and initial support for gender differences in the patterning of stress-related cytokine activity. In addition, this study presents novel evidence that post-menopausal women may be particularly susceptible to stress-related inflammatory responses. The possibility that this contributes to the increased risk of inflammatory disease observed among older women warrants investigation.

Post-menopausal Women Exhibit Greater Interleukin-6 Responses to Mental Stress Than Older Men

“…Yet, the inflammatory responses observed in this study were of greater magnitude and were also sustained 75 min after stress exposure. This finding also adds support to a previous small study [16] that found sex differences in LPS-stimulated IL-6 production at 30 min post-stress between post-menopausal women compared to pre-menopausal women, and men. However, in that study, mental stress-related changes in unstimulated IL-6 levels were not observed.…”

“…However, males had higher C-reactive protein (CRP) responses compared to females. Yet, another study in an older sample found no sex differences in stimulated IL-6 responses to a 5-min speech task 30 min post-stress [16]. However, in a subgroup analysis the authors observed that postmenopausal females had greater IL-6 responses compared to pre-menopausal females.…”

Impact of LIMK1, MMP2 and TNF-α variations for intracranial aneurysm in Japanese population

“…[35][36][37][38] Interestingly, there were reports showing that significant differences in the levels of TNF-a production when females and males stimulated under certain physiological condition, such as psychological stress and early alcohol-induced liver injury. 39,40 In our study, the risk allele of rs1799724 (À857T) are known to have a significantly higher level of TNF-a production from concanavalin Aactivated peripheral blood mononuclear cells, 41 implying the importance of this variant in IA development, particularly in female IA.…”

Sex Differences in Depressive and Socioemotional Responses to an Inflammatory Challenge: Implications for Sex Differences in Depression

“…For example, one study found that females showed greater IL-6 responses but smaller TNF-a to stress compared with males (Steptoe et al, 2002). Another study found that while there were no sex differences in the magnitude of the increase in cytokine production in response to social stress, there were sex differences in the recovery period (Prather et al, 2009).…”