Żelaźniewicz Agnieszka, Borkowska Barbara, Nowak Judyta, Pawłowski Bogusław
Department of Human Biology, University of Wrocław, Kuźnicza 35, 50-138 Wrocław, Poland.
Physiol Behav. 2016 Jul 1;161:60-65. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.04.002. Epub 2016 Apr 11.
According to the compensatory prophylaxis hypothesis, women in the luteal phase, characterized by a high progesterone level, which suppresses various mechanisms of immune response, should exhibit higher disgust sensitivity, compared to the follicular phase. In this study we test the hypothesis on the compensatory role of disgust sensitivity at the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, when immune functions are expected to change due to a rise in progesterone level. Disgust sensitivity, progesterone level (P) and white blood cell count (WBC), a general marker of immunocompetence, were measured in 30 healthy women of reproductive age. Disgust sensitivity was evaluated with: 1) Disgust Scale Revised (DS-R) containing three subscales: Core Disgust, Animal Reminder and Contamination Disgust, 2) Pathogen Disgust and Moral Disgust domains of the Three-Domain Disgust Scale. Measurements were conducted twice - in menstruation (the lowest P) and in the mid-luteal phase (the highest P). The results were analyzed longitudinally and using cross-sectional comparisons. Progesterone level, WBC count, and the level of disgust sensitivity in Animal Domain were higher in the mid-luteal phase comparing to menstruation. The level of disgust sensitivity (DS-R score, Animal, Contamination, Pathogen Disgust) correlated only with P (not WBC) and only in the mid-luteal phase (not in menstruation) in between-subjects comparisons. On the base of these results, we hypothesize that the level of disgust sensitivity in the whole menstrual cycle of a woman is "adjusted" to the luteal phase with the highest P level i.e. when immunosuppression is the greatest.
根据补偿性预防假说，黄体期的女性，其特征是孕酮水平较高，会抑制免疫反应的各种机制，与卵泡期相比，她们应表现出更高的厌恶敏感性。在本研究中，我们检验了月经周期黄体期厌恶敏感性的补偿作用这一假说，此时由于孕酮水平升高，免疫功能预计会发生变化。我们测量了30名育龄健康女性的厌恶敏感性、孕酮水平（P）和白细胞计数（WBC），白细胞计数是免疫能力的一个通用指标。通过以下方式评估厌恶敏感性：1）修订后的厌恶量表（DS-R），包含三个子量表：核心厌恶、动物提醒和污染厌恶；2）三领域厌恶量表中的病原体厌恶和道德厌恶领域。测量进行了两次——在月经期（P值最低）和黄体中期（P值最高）。对结果进行了纵向分析和横断面比较。与月经期相比，黄体中期的孕酮水平、白细胞计数和动物领域的厌恶敏感性水平更高。在受试者间比较中，厌恶敏感性水平（DS-R评分、动物、污染、病原体厌恶）仅与P相关（与白细胞计数无关），且仅在黄体中期（而非月经期）相关。基于这些结果，我们假设女性整个月经周期的厌恶敏感性水平会根据P水平最高的黄体期进行“调整”，即免疫抑制最强的时候。
