Psychology Department Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95618, United States.
Psychology Department Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95618, United States.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2020 Sep;119:104745. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2020.104745. Epub 2020 Jun 7.
Systemic inflammation is associated with increased risk for prevalent and costly diseases, and animal models implicate the autonomic nervous system in the control of inflammatory processes. In humans, research on autonomic-immune connections has been much more limited, and has focused on single branch autonomic measures (i.e., either parasympathetic or sympathetic). The current study utilized cardiac autonomic balance (CAB), derived from dual-branch cardiac autonomic recordings, to test the relation between resting autonomic function and inflammatory reactivity to challenge in children.
Participants included 96 children (51 boys, 45 girls) ages 9-11 years (mean age = 9.93 years, SD = 0.57 years). CAB values were calculated from standardized measures of parasympathetic and sympathetic activity, namely resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and pre-ejection period data, respectively. Children provided two blood samples, one before and one following exposure to an acute social stressor or control condition. Serum was assayed for four cytokines that orchestrate inflammation: interleukin-6 (IL6), interleukin-8 (IL8), interleukin-10 (IL10), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFa).
We discovered large individual differences in inflammatory marker production across children, and no average main effect of stress condition. CAB significantly predicted these individual differences, such that children lower on CAB showed increasing serum cytokines from time 1 to time 2. In contrast, children with greater CAB tended to show declining inflammatory markers across the session.
Low cardiac autonomic balance (i.e., the combination of low parasympathetic and high sympathetic activity) may be a useful marker of proinflammatory tendencies in children, suggesting novel paths for early risk detection and intervention.
系统性炎症与常见且昂贵疾病的风险增加有关，动物模型表明自主神经系统参与了炎症过程的控制。在人类中，自主免疫关系的研究要受限制得多，并且主要集中在单一分支自主措施（即副交感或交感神经）上。本研究利用双分支心脏自主记录衍生的心脏自主平衡（CAB）来测试静息自主功能与儿童挑战时炎症反应之间的关系。
参与者包括 96 名 9-11 岁的儿童（51 名男孩，45 名女孩）（平均年龄= 9.93 岁，SD= 0.57 岁）。CAB 值是从分别代表副交感和交感活动的标准化测量值——静息呼吸窦性心律失常和射前期数据中计算出来的。儿童提供了两个血样，一个是在暴露于急性社会压力源或对照条件之前，另一个是在暴露于急性社会压力源或对照条件之后。血清中检测到四种协调炎症的细胞因子：白细胞介素-6（IL-6）、白细胞介素-8（IL-8）、白细胞介素-10（IL-10）和肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）。
我们发现儿童的炎症标志物产生存在很大的个体差异，且没有压力条件的平均主要影响。CAB 显著预测了这些个体差异，例如，CAB 较低的儿童从时间 1 到时间 2 时血清细胞因子增加。相比之下，CAB 较高的儿童在整个过程中炎症标志物呈下降趋势。
低心脏自主平衡（即低副交感和高交感活动的组合）可能是儿童促炎倾向的有用标志物，这表明了早期风险检测和干预的新途径。
