Murakami Yoshino, Hashimoto Takeshi, Cole Steve
Faculty of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan.
Department of Medicine and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Brain Behav Immun Health. 2025 Jun 19;47:101040. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2025.101040. eCollection 2025 Aug.
Previous research suggests that parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity may inhibit the leukocyte Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) which has been observed in individuals exposed to prolonged stressors like loneliness, social isolation, and bereavement. Previous PNS-CTRA studies have focused on Western populations, raising questions about the generalizability of these findings across different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This study examined the relationship between PNS activity (as indexed by heart rate variability; HRV) and CTRA gene expression in young, healthy adults in Japan (n = 26; Mean age = 26; 34.6 % female). In analyses that controlled for demographic and behavioral covariates (including age, sex, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol, and BMI), results showed a significant inverse relationship between HRV and CTRA gene expression (i.e., lower expression of pro-inflammatory genes and elevated expression of Type I interferon response genes). Convergent validation analyses of genome-wide transcription factor activity linked HRV to up-regulation of Interferon Response Factors and down-regulation of NF-κB. These results parallel previous findings from Western samples, confirming that PNS neuro-immune regulation generalizes to an population based in Japan, as part of broader East Asian region and identifying HRV as a useful index for optimizing immune health in diverse populations.
先前的研究表明，副交感神经系统（PNS）活动可能会抑制白细胞对逆境的保守转录反应（CTRA），这种反应在经历长期压力源（如孤独、社会隔离和丧亲之痛）的个体中已被观察到。先前关于PNS-CTRA的研究主要集中在西方人群，这引发了关于这些发现在不同文化和种族背景中普遍适用性的问题。本研究调查了日本年轻健康成年人（n = 26；平均年龄 = 26岁；34.6%为女性）中PNS活动（以心率变异性；HRV为指标）与CTRA基因表达之间的关系。在控制了人口统计学和行为协变量（包括年龄、性别、种族、吸烟、饮酒和BMI）的分析中，结果显示HRV与CTRA基因表达之间存在显著的负相关关系（即促炎基因表达降低，I型干扰素反应基因表达升高）。对全基因组转录因子活性的收敛性验证分析将HRV与干扰素反应因子的上调和NF-κB的下调联系起来。这些结果与先前西方样本的研究结果相似，证实了PNS神经免疫调节在作为东亚更广泛地区一部分的日本人群中具有普遍性，并确定HRV是优化不同人群免疫健康的有用指标。
