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Stability of individual differences in cellular immune responses to two different laboratory tasks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2003

ANNA L. MARSLAND ,
BRENT N. HENDERSON ,
WILLIAM H. CHAMBERS  and
ANDREW BAUM
ANNA L. MARSLAND
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
BRENT N. HENDERSON
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
WILLIAM H. CHAMBERS
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
ANDREW BAUM
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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Abstract

To explore the stability of immune reactivity across laboratory tasks, we correlated enumerative and functional lymphocyte responses to a speech task and a mental arithmetic task, delivered on the same occasion of testing in 31 healthy undergraduates. Both tasks were associated with an increase in peripheral CD8+ and CD56+ cell populations, and a decrease in proliferative response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and ratio of CD4:CD8 cells. Intertask correlations were significant for the magnitude of change in proliferative responses at two different concentrations of PHA, r = 0.76, p < .0001 and r = 0.46, p < .05, and in numbers of circulating CD56+ cells, r = 0.46, p < .005. Concomitant heart rate and systolic blood pressure responses also correlated significantly over the two experimental tasks (heart rate: r = 0.52 and systolic blood pressure: r = 0.58. ps < .0005). These data provide initial evidence that interindividual variability of some cellular immune responses is moderately reproducible across different stimulus conditions, providing further evidence that it may denote a stable individual difference.

Keywords

Cellular immune reactivityAcute psychological stressorsIntertask reliabilityIndividual differenceSpeech taskMental arithmetic task
Type
BRIEF REPORT
Information
Psychophysiology , Volume 39 , Issue 6 , November 2002 , pp. 865 - 868
Copyright
2002 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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