de Voogd Lycia D, Kampen Rosalie Anne, Kaldewaij Reinoud, Zhang Wei, Hashemi Mahur Melina, Koch Saskia B J, Klumpers Floris, Glennon Jeffrey C, Roelofs Karin
Donders Institute, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Donders Institute, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2022 Dec;146:105909. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105909. Epub 2022 Aug 30.
One of the hallmarks of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is abnormalities in the HPA-axis. This includes alterations in its negative feedback regulation. Although altered glucocorticoid receptor (GR) mRNA expression is thought to play a crucial role herein, direct longitudinal evidence in humans is lacking to support this assumption. The current prospective longitudinal study assessed the consequence of repeated trauma exposure on GR mRNA expression from saliva samples in early-career police recruits (n = 112) by assessing them before and after trauma exposure. We did not observe a relationship between change in GR mRNA expression and development of PTSD symptom severity. However, the more traumatic events were experienced during police training the stronger GR mRNA expression was increased. Moreover, increases in GR mRNA expression were associated with blunted HPA-axis stress-reactivity at follow-up compared to baseline. This study provides the first longitudinal evidence of a dose-response relationship between trauma and human GR mRNA expression (extracted from saliva) changes; therefore, replication is warranted. Our finding might contribute a possible explanatory framework for blunted HPA-axis function associated with PTSD.
创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的一个标志是下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴异常。这包括其负反馈调节的改变。尽管糖皮质激素受体（GR）mRNA表达的改变被认为在此过程中起关键作用，但缺乏人类的直接纵向证据来支持这一假设。当前的前瞻性纵向研究通过在创伤暴露前后对早期职业警察新兵（n = 112）的唾液样本进行评估，来评估重复创伤暴露对GR mRNA表达的影响。我们没有观察到GR mRNA表达的变化与PTSD症状严重程度的发展之间存在关联。然而，在警察训练期间经历的创伤事件越多，GR mRNA表达增加得就越强。此外，与基线相比，随访时GR mRNA表达的增加与HPA轴应激反应迟钝有关。这项研究首次提供了创伤与人类GR mRNA表达（从唾液中提取）变化之间剂量反应关系的纵向证据；因此，有必要进行重复研究。我们的发现可能为与PTSD相关的HPA轴功能迟钝提供一个可能的解释框架。
