Penatzer Julia A, Miller Julie V, Han Alice A, Prince Nicole, Boyd Jonathan W
C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Department of Orthopaedics, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Brain Behav Immun Health. 2020 Mar 28;4:100068. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2020.100068. eCollection 2020 Apr.
Using salivary inflammatory markers as a noninvasive biomonitoring technique within natural social contexts has become increasingly important to link social and biological responses. Many studies have associated circulating cytokines to distinct aspects of physical activity and social/emotional behavior; however, they have not been linked to success and failure in a naturalistic setting for military personnel performing tasks. In this study, salivary cytokines were studied in a group of fifteen Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC; 14 males, 1 female) subjects performing three mock hostage rescue missions, designed to prompt responses associated with baseline, success, and failure. Each subject completed the tasks of the mission individually and again in randomly assigned teams. Participants were outfitted via direct skin contact with comfortable external Zephyr™ sensors to monitor heart rate, breathing rate, and activity while completing each task. Saliva samples were collected before and after the completion of each mission, and cytokine levels were quantified using enzyme-labelled immunoassay (ELISA) beads. These biomarkers were used to describe the body's immune response to success and failure when performing a mock rescue mission individually and in a team. All measured cytokine levels increased following failed missions performed individually, compared to cytokine levels associated with successful missions. When completing the tasks as a team, there were no significant differences in cytokine response between success and failure; however, being in a team stimulated an increased pre-mission cytokine response, suggesting the concept of teamwork and performing with peers for the first time had a more significant impact than the notion of failing. Additionally, none of the cytokines tested for individual missions correlated to physical activity markers (heart rate, breathing rate, activity) measured during performance. These results indicate a potentially new noninvasive method of determining social stress levels under taxing conditions.
在自然社会环境中使用唾液炎症标志物作为一种非侵入性生物监测技术，对于联系社会和生物反应变得越来越重要。许多研究已将循环细胞因子与身体活动以及社会/情感行为的不同方面联系起来；然而，它们尚未与执行任务的军事人员在自然环境中的成功与失败联系起来。在本研究中，对一组15名空军后备军官训练团（ROTC；14名男性，1名女性）受试者的唾液细胞因子进行了研究，这些受试者执行了三次模拟人质救援任务，旨在引发与基线、成功和失败相关的反应。每个受试者先单独完成任务，然后再以随机分配的小组形式完成任务。参与者通过与舒适的外部Zephyr™传感器直接皮肤接触来装备，以在完成每项任务时监测心率、呼吸频率和活动情况。在每次任务完成前后收集唾液样本，并使用酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）磁珠对细胞因子水平进行定量。这些生物标志物用于描述身体在单独和团队执行模拟救援任务时对成功和失败的免疫反应。与成功任务相关的细胞因子水平相比，单独执行失败任务后，所有测量的细胞因子水平均升高。当作为一个团队完成任务时，成功与失败之间的细胞因子反应没有显著差异；然而，团队合作会刺激任务前细胞因子反应增加，这表明团队合作的概念以及首次与同伴一起执行任务比失败的概念产生了更显著的影响。此外，针对单独任务测试的细胞因子均与执行任务期间测量的身体活动标志物（心率、呼吸频率、活动）无关。这些结果表明了一种在压力条件下确定社会压力水平的潜在新的非侵入性方法。
