title: Endocrine and cytokine responses to acute psychological stress in multiple sclerosis.
abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system. An impaired hypothalamopituitary axis and stress reactivity have extensively been discussed without convincing experimental evidence. We choose a standardized acute psychological stressor to determine whether MS patients show altered endocrine and immune responses to stress. In 35 relapsing-remitting MS patients we found elevated baseline levels for catecholamines, prolactin, and IL-6 compared to 15 healthy controls. All neuroendocrine parameters declined during the stress intervention in MS as well as in stress-exposed controls. But only prolactin showed a significantly larger decline in stressed MS patients versus controls. During exposure to the stress we found no significant changes in serum levels of IL-6, IL-6 receptor, or TNF-alpha in either MS patients or controls after stimulation of a whole blood culture. An altered neural immune signaling in relapsing-remitting MS patients during acute experimental stress could not be proven for the parameters analyzed.
authors: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Heesen
authors: Holger
authors: H
authors: Schulz
authors: Michaela
authors: M
authors: Schmidt
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Gold
authors: Wiebke
authors: W
authors: Tessmer
authors: Karl-Heinz
authors: KH
authors: Schulz
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D002395:Catecholamines / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000276:immunology*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D015213:Neuroimmunomodulation / Q000502:physiology; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000276:immunology*; D019947:Receptors, Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002395:Catecholamines; D015850:Interleukin-6; D019947:Receptors, Interleukin-6; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D006854:Hydrocortisone