DIFFERENTIAL RESPONSIVITY OF MONOCYTE CYTOKINE AND ADHESION PROTEINS IN HIGH-HOSTILE AND LOW-HOSTILE HUMANS

This study tested the general hypothesis that high-and law-hostile res pondents would show different patterns of change in monocyte cytokine and adhesion protein (MCAP) expression in response to pharmacologicall y induced alterations in sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasymp athetic nervous system (PNS) balance. On 3 separate days, 4 high-and 4 low-hostile respondents received isoproterenol infusions after saline , atropine (PNS blockade), or neostigmine (PNS stimulation) pretreatme nt. Dual color flow cytometry with fluorescently labeled monoclonal an tibodies to CD 14 (monocyte marker), interleukin-l, leukocyte function activator (LFA-I), Class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC-II) , and tumor necrosis factor was used to quantify cytokine and adhesion protein expression on monocytes in blood samples drawn before and aft er the combination drug infusions on the 3 test days in each responden t. Following PNS stimulation and isoproterenol infusion there was a de crease (compared to saline pretreatment) in MHC II expression in high hostiles that was significantly (p<.02) different from an increase in low hostiles. A similar trend (p=.08) was seen for LFA-1 expression, w ith high hostiles showing an increase and low hostiles a decrease. The se findings support the broad hypothesis that high-and low-hostile res pondents will show different MCAP responses to pharmacologically induc ed alterations in SNS-PNS balance. Such differences could contribute t o accelerated atherogenesis among high-hostile individuals.