Salivary markers of inflammation in response to acute stress

Abstract

There is burgeoning interest in the ability to detect inflammatory markers in response to stress within naturally occurring social contexts and/or across multiple time points per day within individuals. Salivary collection is a less invasive process than current methods of blood collection and enables intensive naturalistic methodologies, such as those involving extensive repeated measures per day over time. Yet the reliability and validity of saliva-based to blood-based inflammatory biomarkers in response to stress remains unclear. We review and synthesize the published studies that have examined salivary markers of inflammation following exposure to an acute laboratory stressor. Results from each study are reviewed by analyte (IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, IL-12, CRP) and stress type (social-cognitive and exercise-physical), after which methodological issues and limitations are addressed. Although the literature is limited, several inflammatory markers (including IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6) have been reliably determined from saliva and have increased significantly in response to stress across multiple studies, with effect sizes ranging from very small to very large. Although CRP from saliva has been associated with CRP in circulating blood more consistently than other biomarkers have been associated with their counterparts in blood, evidence demonstrating it reliably responds to acute stress is absent. Although the current literature is presently too limited to allow broad assertion that inflammatory biomarkers determined from saliva are valuable for examining acute stress responses, this review suggests that specific targets may be valid and highlights specific areas of need for future research.

Maternal distress and child neuroendocrine and immune regulation

“…Furthermore, our findings suggest that maternal distress is related to differences in some, but not all, salivary inflammatory mechanisms examined; further research is needed to understand the sensitivity of specific NEI relations to psychosocial factors. Future research should investigate NEI relations using other markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein, which has been found to have stronger serum-saliva correlations than other inflammatory markers (Slavish et al, 2015). …”

“…While salivary cytokine activity likely reflects local immune processes, interactions between inflammatory cytokine and HPA activity in the oral cavity have been found to mirror immune-HPA relations previously identified in serum (Riis et al, 2015). Furthermore, in studies of adults, salivary IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α have exhibited acute stress sensitivity (Slavish, Graham-Engeland, Smyth, & Engeland, 2015). …”

Acute and chronic psychological stress as risk factors for cardiovascular disease: Insights gained from epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies

“…Heart; blood Stress duration dependent " plasma CORT; ; heart histamine level; " serum histamine level; " mast cell degranulation Huang et al " plaque size; " hematopoietic system activity; " plaque protease levels; " intimal neutrophils, monocytes and macrophages; " necrotic core area; ; fibrous cap thickness; " plaque monocyte inflammatory gene expression No significant difference in bodyweight; total cholesterol Dutta et al (2012) Similar to the response to chronic stress, acute stress exposure has been demonstrated to result in a quick rise in plasma interleukins and inflammatory markers (Table 1) (Yamauchi et al, 2013;Wilbert-Lampen et al, 2010;Schultze-Florey et al, 2012;Cohen et al, 2015;Suarez, 2004;Coccaro et al, 2014;Slavish et al, 2015), such as IL-6, IL-1b and sICAM (Heinz et al, 2003;Kuebler et al, 2015), which have all been demonstrated to be proatherogenic. Furthermore, the rise in plasma IL-6 was seen to associate with fibrin formation and pro-coagulant markers (von Känel et al, 2005), which may lead to an enhanced risk of thrombosis upon plaque rupture.…”

Group Drumming Modulates Cytokine Response in Mental Health Services Users: A Preliminary Study

“…Immediately before and after the first and final sessions of the 6-week intervention, participants completed visual analogue mood scales, blood pressure measurements and provided a saliva sample, collected via passive drool method and stored immediately at -20°C. Recent research has documented the promise of salivary measurement in psychobiological research as a non-invasive, pain-free tool [8,9,10]. Saliva samples were analysed using Luminex multiplex assays.…”