Healthy lifestyles are associated with higher levels of perforin, granulysin and granzymes A/B-expressing cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes.
OBJECTIVE
It is well documented that natural killer (NK) cells provide host defense against tumors and viruses. We previously showed that lifestyle affects human NK and LAK activities. In order to explore the underlying mechanism, we investigated the effect of lifestyle on intracellular perforin, granulysin, and granzymes A/B in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL).


METHODS
114 healthy male subjects, aged 20-59 years, from a large company in Osaka, Japan were selected with informed consent. The subjects were divided into groups reporting good, moderate, and poor lifestyles according to their responses on a questionnaire regarding eight health practices (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, sleeping hours, working hours, physical exercise, eating breakfast, balanced nutrition, and mental stress). Peripheral blood was taken, and numbers of NK, T, perforin, granulysin, and granzymes A/B-expressing cells in PBL were measured by flow cytometry.


RESULTS
Subjects with good or moderate lifestyle showed significantly higher numbers of NK, and perforin, granulysin, and granzymes A/B-expressing cells and a significantly lower number of T cells in PBL than subjects with poor lifestyle. Among the eight health practices, cigarette smoking, physical exercise, eating breakfast, and balanced nutrition significantly affect the numbers of NK, T cells, perforin, granulysin, and/or granzymes A/B-expressing cells, and alcohol consumption significantly affects the number of granzyme A-expressing cells. On the other hand, mental stress, sleeping, and working hours had no effect on those parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, these findings indicate that poor lifestyle significantly decreases the numbers of NK, perforin, granulysin, and granzymes A/B-expressing cells in PBL.
Li
Qing
Q
Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8602, Japan. qing-li@nms.ac.jp
Morimoto
Kanehisa
K
Nakadai
Ari
A
Qu
Tianli
T
Matsushima
Hiroki
H
Katsumata
Masao
M
Shimizu
Takako
T
Inagaki
Hirofumi
H
Hirata
Yukiyo
Y
Hirata
Kimiko
K
Kawada
Tomoyuki
T
Lu
Yuquan
Y
Nakayama
Kunio
K
Krensky
Alan M
AM
D000328:Adult; D000945:Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte / Q000032:analysis*; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D053804:Granzymes / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D054353:Perforin; D052899:Pore Forming Cytotoxic Proteins / Q000097:blood*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
D000945:Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte; C075005:GNLY protein, human; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D052899:Pore Forming Cytotoxic Proteins; D054353:Perforin; D053804:Granzymes