Acute psychological stress-induced progenitor cell mobilization and cardiovascular events

Certain brain activation responses to psychological stress are associated with worse outcomes in CVD patients. We hypothesized that elevated acute psychological stress, manifesting as greater activity within neural centers for emotional regulation, mobilizes CPC from the bone marrow to the peripheral blood and predicts future cardiovascular events.

In 427 patients with stable CAD undergoing a laboratory-based mental stress (MS) test, CPCs were enumerated using flow cytometry as CD34-expressing mononuclear cells (CD34+) before and 45 min after stress. Changes in brain regional blood flow with MS were measured using high resolution-positron emission tomography (HR-PET). Association between the change in CPC with MS and the risk of cardiovascular death or myocardial infarction (MI) during a 5-year follow-up period was analyzed.

MS increased CPC counts by a mean of 150 [630] cells/mL (15%), P < 0.001. Greater limbic lobe activity, indicative of activation of emotion-regulating centers, was associated with greater CPC mobilization (P < 0.005). Using Fine and Gray models after adjustment for demographioc, clinical risk factors and medications use, greater CPC mobilization was associated with a higher adjusted risk of adverse events; a rise of 1000 cells/mL was associated with a 50% higher risk of cardiovascular death/MI [hazards ratio, 1.5, 95% confidence interval, 1.1-2.2).

Greater limbic lobe activity, brain areas involved in emotional regulation, is associated with MS-induced CPC mobilization. This mobilization isindependently associated with cardiovascular events. These findings provide novel insights into mechanisms through which psychological stressors modulate cardiovascular risk.