title: Apolipoprotein E phenotypes and cardiovascular responses to experimentally induced mental stress in adolescent boys.
abstract: We investigated the relationship between apolipoprotein E (apoE) polymorphism and cardiovascular responses to experimentally induced mental stress. Mental stress was induced in 28 healthy 16-year-old boys with a series of stressors (e.g., mental arithmetic, Stroop Color-Word Interference Test). Heart rate (HR), finger blood volume, and skin conductance level were recorded continuously during the task performance. We found that boys with apoE3/2 or apoE3/3 showed marginally significantly greater HR reactivity and significantly greater task levels of HR and HR variability (HRV) during the mental stress than subjects with apoE4/2, apoE4/3, or apoE4/4. In addition, E4/2, E4/3, and E4/4 subjects manifested a distinct stress-related decrease in HRV relative to baseline values while E3/2 and E3/3 subjects showed a slight increase. The results suggests that apoE polymorphism is associated with cardiovascular responsivity to mental stress in adolescent boys.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ravaja
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Räikkönen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lyytinen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lehtimäki
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Keltikangas-Järvinen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics*; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E