The effects of acute psychologic stress on cellular adhesion molecules

Cellular adhesion molecules, or CAMs, constitute a family of cell-surface receptors responsible for mediating interactions among leukocytes, platelets, and vascular endothelium. This pilot study (N = 22 healthy men and women) examined the effects of a 6-minute speaking stressor on several CAMs, including L-selectin, ICAM-1, and the integrins. The psychologic stressor caused a significant decrease in L-selectin (p = 0.04). Significant task by gender interactions indicated that during stress women increased whereas men decreased in 3 markers of the integrin family, LFA-1, LFA-2, and LFA-3 (all p < 0.05). There was no significant task effect on ICAM-1 nor group differences in state anger or anxiety ratings following the task. Across all subjects, the changes (task minus baseline) in LFA-1 and LFA-2 were negatively correlated with the subjects' age (r(=) = -0.49, p = 0.02 and r(=)-0.53, p = 0.01, respectively), indicating that older subjects showed less change in these markers than did younger subjects. These preliminary findings suggest that the immune activation that accompanies acute psychologic stress may be sufficient to alter the expression of certain cellular adhesion molecules. Further study should be directed towards determining whether cellular adhesion molecule expression is altered equally across various leukocyte subsets or is restricted to specific cell types.