Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Advanced General Dentistry, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Faculty of Science, Department of Pharmacology, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
PLoS One. 2021 Aug 12;16(8):e0256172. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256172. eCollection 2021.
Salivary biomarkers have been widely used to help diagnose stress, anxiety, and/or depression. This study aimed to compare the responses of three commonly investigated salivary stress biomarkers that represent the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity (cortisol; sCort) and the sympathetic activity (alpha-amylase; sAA and chromogranin A; sCgA), using academic oral presentation as a model of stress. Twenty postgraduate dental students attended the seminar class as presenter and audience. The presenters' performances were evaluated by the instructors suggesting more stress than the audience. The saliva was collected two times: before attending class and after an academic presentation (for presenters) or during the class (for audience). The pulse rates (PR) were also recorded. The results showed that the levels of all three biomarkers, as well as PR, were significantly higher in the presenter group compared with the audience group; however, the changes were most prominent with sCort and sAA (99.56 ± 12.76% for sCort, 93.48 ± 41.29% for sAA, 16.86 ± 6.42% for sCgA, and 15.06 ± 3.41% for PR). When compared between pre-post presentation, the levels of sCgA were not different, while those of sCort and sAA were significantly increased. These results suggest more sensitive reactivity to academic stress of sCort and sAA compared with sCgA and that the response of sCgA did not necessarily follow sAA pattern even though both are claimed to reflect the sympathetic activity. More studies are needed to elucidate the roles of sCgA in stress.
唾液生物标志物已被广泛用于帮助诊断压力、焦虑和/或抑郁。本研究旨在比较三种常用的唾液应激生物标志物,它们代表下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺活动(皮质醇;sCort)和交感活动(唾液淀粉酶;sAA 和嗜铬粒蛋白 A;sCgA),并以学术演讲作为应激模型。20 名牙科学位研究生作为演讲者和观众参加了研讨会。演讲者的表现由教员进行评估,认为他们比观众承受更大的压力。两次采集唾液:上课前和学术演讲后(演讲者)或上课期间(观众)。还记录了脉搏率(PR)。结果表明,与观众组相比,所有三种生物标志物(sCort、sAA 和 sCgA)以及 PR 的水平在演讲者组中均显著升高;然而,sCort 和 sAA 的变化最为显著(sCort 增加 99.56 ± 12.76%,sAA 增加 93.48 ± 41.29%,sCgA 增加 16.86 ± 6.42%,PR 增加 15.06 ± 3.41%)。与演讲前后相比,sCgA 的水平没有差异,而 sCort 和 sAA 的水平显著增加。这些结果表明,sCort 和 sAA 对学术压力的反应比 sCgA 更敏感,并且即使 sAA 模式也不必然反映 sCgA 的反应,尽管两者都被认为反映了交感活动。需要进一步的研究来阐明 sCgA 在应激中的作用。