CHANGES OF GLYCOPROTEIN PATTERNS IN SERA OF HUMANS UNDER STRESS

Stress exhibits adverse effects on many vital processes in which glyco proteins play a significant role (e. g. cell-cell/matrix interactions, immune response, neoplastic growth, implantation, prenatal developmen t), yet only scarce attention has been directed towards studying stres s induced changes in glycoprotein patterns. Using SDS-electrophoresis, blotting and digoxigenin-labelled lectins (Sambucus nigra agglutinin, Galanthus nivalis agglutinin, Datura stramonium agglutinin, Maackia a murensis agglutinin and peanut (Arachis hypogaea) agglutinin), sera we re analysed from 30 individuals chosen randomly from a severely stress ed population of 309 male volunteers with no specific medical symptoms . Significant changes were found in glycoprotein pattern and content, compared with healthy controls of matching age and sex. Occasionally m inor non-specific deviations from the reference values for several ana lytes (haemoglobin, glucose, bilirubin and alanine aminotransferase) w ere detected in the tested group, but glycoprotein GP45 (M(r) = 45000) , detected by Datura stramonium agglutinin and Sambucus nigra agglutin in, appeared in 96.7% of samples of the stressed population. The same population also revealed an approximately 500-fold increase of GP37 in comparison with the control sera. These results suggest that stress, as a non-specific syndrome, induces specific biochemical changes, whic h could be of diagnostic relevance as risk makers before any more seri ous symptoms of stress-related consequences have developed.