title: Psychosocial Stress Increases Salivary Alpha-Amylase Activity Independently from Plasma Noradrenaline Levels.
abstract: Salivary alpha-amylase activity (sAA) and plasma noradrenaline (NA) concentrations are often considered to be surrogate markers of sympathetic activation in response to stress. However, despite accumulating evidence for a close association between sAA and noradrenaline and other indicators of sympathetic activity, reliability and generality of this relation remains unclear. We employed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in order to directly compare the responses in sAA and NA to psychological stress in healthy volunteers (n = 23). The TSST significantly increased sAA and NA plasma levels with no significant differences in females and males. However, when subjects were divided according to their NA responses into low versus high responders, both groups did not significantly differ in their sAA before, during or after stress exposure. These data suggest that in response to acute psychological stress both plasma NA levels and sAA reflect sympathetic activity, however seemed to increase independently from each other.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Liubov
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petrakova
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Bettina K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Doering
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vits
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Engler
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Winfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rief
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schedlowski
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; Laboratory of Neuronal Structure and Function, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jan-Sebastian
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Grigoleit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000097:blood*; D012463:Saliva / Q000201:enzymology*; D055291:Salivary alpha-Amylases / Q000378:metabolism*; D013315:Stress, Psychological
chemical_list: D055291:Salivary alpha-Amylases; D006854:Hydrocortisone; D009638:Norepinephrine