Book of Abstracts - New Frontiers 2022

Abstracts of oral presentations

DECREASED SYMPATHETIC ACTIVATION DURING PSYCHOSOCIAL STRESS IN ALLERGIC PATIENTS

N. Hlavacova 1 , P. Solarikova 2 , I. Brezina 2 , D. Jezova 1

1 Institute of Experimental Endocrinology, Biomedical Research Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia; 2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia Chronic stress events may result in worsening the quality of life and consequent pathological states. Accordingly, psychosocial stress may represent a factor involved in both the onset of allergic diseases and the exacerbation of the existing allergic disease. In patients with atopy, a decreased responsiveness of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis to stress stimuli has been documented. Less consistent are the results on the autonomic nervous system function. The present study has focused on so far unexplored parameters related to the sympathetic nervous system activity, namely the salivary enzyme alpha-amylase and the stress hormone aldosterone. We test the hypothesis that the blunted cortisol response to psychosocial stress in atopic patients is associated with reduced salivary alpha-amylase activity and aldosterone concentrations. The sample consisted of 106 subjects of both sexes, 53 atopic patients suffering from allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma, or atopic dermatitis, and 53 age-, sex-, the menstrual cycle phase- and BMI- matched healthy controls. Volunteers were exposed to a laboratory model of psychosocial stress based on public speech. A substantially attenuated activity of alpha-amylase and reduced secretion of aldosterone during the psychosocial stress were observed in the whole sample of patients with atopy. Higher activity of alpha-amylase observed in the follicular compared to the luteal phase in healthy women was not present in atopic patients. In both males and females, atopy was associated with blunted cortisol response but unchanged heart rate. These findings provide evidence that patients with atopy exhibit insufficient alpha-amylase and aldosterone responsiveness to the psychosocial stressor, thus suggesting decreased sympathetic activity.

Keywords: stress, allergy, alpha-amylase, aldosterone, heart rate

Funding: The study was supported by grant of APVV-17-0451.

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