Sex Differences in Lipid, Lipoprotein, Cardiovascular, and Neuroendocrine Responses to Acute Stress

Abstract

This study had two objectives: (a) to examine whether or not lipids and lipoproteins change in response to acute behavioral stress in young adults; and (b) to test the extent of sex differences in the magnitude of the lipid, lipoprotein, neuroendocrine, and cardiovascular changes during stress. Nineteen women and 22 men participated in a serial subtraction task, a videotaped speech task, and a self‐evaluation task. The cholesterol portions of low density and high density lipoproteins, triglycerides, free fatty acids, epinephrine, norepinephrine, heart rate, and blood pressure were examined at rest and during each stressor. Repeated measures analyses of variance indicated that stress‐related levels of low density and high density lipoprotein‐cholesterol, triglycerides, free fatty acids, norepinephrine, heart rate, and blood pressure were elevated, relative to baseline, and that these responses were partially task or order dependent. Subsequent analyses of sex differences showed that males had larger low density lipoprotein‐cholesterol and blood pressure increases during all tasks, relative to those of females, and females had larger heart rate responses to the speech task, relative to those of males. There were no sex differences in plasma catecholamine adjustments. These data demonstrate that the cholesterol fractions of high and low density lipoproteins increase during acute psychological stress, and are the first to systematically examine male/female differences in those stress responses.

Changes in plasma lipids with psychosocial stress are related to hypertension status and the norepinephrine stress response

“…However, findings are inconsistent with some studies suggesting elevations in blood lipids even after adjustment for changes in hemoconcentration [18,19].…”

Depressive Mood Accompanies Hypercholesterolemia in Young Japanese Adults.

“…If it were true that males experienced more stress-induced hypercholesterolemia during the entrance examination period and then decreased their serum total cholesterol levels to a greater extent than females, this result would be consistent with previous research which has shown that young adult men had greater total cholesterol changes during stress than young adult women. 36) However, the effect of gender on serum cholesterol is not conclusive because other researchers have indicated that the serum total cholesterol due to an examination stressor correlated positively with depression but that there were no significant gender differences in cholesterol response. 37) It is possible that a gender difference in the cholesterol response might be characteristic of a young, highly intelligent population.…”

Metabolically exaggerated cardiac reactions to acute psychological stress: The effects of resting blood pressure status and possible underlying mechanisms

“…As would be expected, they differed on screening SBP, F(1,20) = 50.97, p < .001, η 2 p = .718, and DBP, F(1,20) = 7.84, p = .01, η 2 p = .282. Women were excluded from the study for four reasons: their low prevalence of elevated resting blood pressure (Carroll et al, 1991); the possibility of variations in reactivity with menstrual cycle phase (Hastrup & Light, 1984;Stoney, Matthews, McDonald, & Johnson, 1988); the sensitivities involved in thoracic scanning; and our aim to replicate our previous study (Carroll et al, 2009). …”