RAPID CHANGES IN CELLULAR-IMMUNITY FOLLOWING A CONFRONTATIONAL ROLE-PLAY STRESSOR

Recent laboratory studies have shown several immune system changes con sistently associated with brief stress including increases in circulat ing natural killer (NK) cell numbers, increases in NK cell cytotoxicit y (NKCC), increases in suppressor cytotoxic (CD8) T cell numbers, and decreases in the in vitro proliferative response to mitogen stimulatio n. In the present study, we use a confrontational role-play, which bri ngs out responses varying from assertion to capitulation and examine t he psychological, behavioral, physiological, and immune system respons es to this task compared to a resting control task. Compared to the co ntrol condition, the brief confrontational role-play led to significan t subjective and physiological arousal and increases in circulating NK (CD16, CD56) as well as large granular lymphocyte (CD57) cells and su ppressor/cytotoxic T cells (CD8). There were also significant relation ships between stress-related increases in the cardiovascular measures and the numbers of circulating NK cells. These findings support sympat hetic nervous system activation as a primary mechanism for increases i n NK cell numbers under challenge. These role-play results are general ly consistent with those from other laboratory tasks such as mental ar ithmetic. However, in contrast to previously examined brief stressors, the role-play led to decreased NKCC adjusted for percentage of NK cel ls. This apparent differential change in NK cytotoxicity across differ ent types of activating experimental tasks points to the importance of examining dimensions of the behavioral and emotional response to chal lenge or threat in addition to that of autonomic arousal. (C) 1995 Aca demic Press, Inc.