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      Differences in Salivary Alpha-Amylase and Cortisol Responsiveness following Exposure to Electrical Stimulation versus the Trier Social Stress Tests

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          Abstract

          Background

          Cortisol is an essential hormone in the regulation of the stress response along the HPA axis, and salivary cortisol has been used as a measure of free circulating cortisol levels. Recently, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) has also emerged as a novel biomarker for psychosocial stress responsiveness within the sympathetic adrenomedullary (SAM) system.

          Principal Findings

          We measured sAA and salivary cortisol in healthy volunteers after exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and electric stimulation stress. One hundred forty-nine healthy volunteers participated in this study. All subjects were exposed to both the TSST and electric stimulation stress on separate days. We measured sAA and salivary cortisol levels three times immediately before, immediately after, and 20 min after the stress challenge. The State (STAI-S) and Trait (STAI-T) versions of the Spielberger Anxiety Inventory test and the Profile of Mood State (POMS) tests were administered to participants before the electrical stimulation and TSST protocols. We also measured HF, LF and LF/HF Heart Rate Variability ratio immediately after electrical stimulation and TSST exposure. Following TSST exposure or electrical stimulation, sAA levels displayed a rapid increase and recovery, returning to baseline levels 20 min after the stress challenge. Salivary cortisol responses showed a delayed increase, which remained significantly elevated from baseline levels 20 min after the stress challenge. Analyses revealed no differences between men and women with regard to their sAA response to the challenges (TSST or electric stimulations), while we found significantly higher salivary cortisol responses to the TSST in females. We also found that younger subjects tended to display higher sAA activity. Salivary cortisol levels were significantly correlated with the strength of the applied electrical stimulation.

          Conclusions

          These preliminary results suggest that the HPA axis (but not the SAM system) may show differential response patterns to distinct kinds of stressors.

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          Most cited references33

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          Emotion and motivation II: sex differences in picture processing.

          M M Bradley, M Codispoti, D Sabatinelli … (2001)
          Adhering to the view that emotional reactivity is organized in part by underlying motivational states--defensive and appetitive--we investigated sex differences in motivational activation. Men's and women's affective reactions were measured while participants viewed pictures with varied emotional and neutral content. As expected, highly arousing contents of threat, mutilation, and erotica prompted the largest affective reactions in both men and women. Nonetheless, women showed a broad disposition to respond with greater defensive reactivity to aversive pictures, regardless of specific content, whereas increased appetitive activation was apparent for men only when viewing erotica. Biological and sociocultural factors in shaping sex differences in emotional reactivity are considered as possible mediators of sex differences in emotional response.
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            Salivary cortisol in psychoneuroendocrine research: recent developments and applications.

            C Kirschbaum, D H Hellhammer (1993)
            The assessment of cortisol in saliva has proven a valid and reliable reflection of the respective unbound hormone in blood. To date, assessment of cortisol in saliva is a widely accepted and frequently employed method in psychoneuroendocrinology. Due to several advantages over blood cortisol analyses (e.g., stress-free sampling, laboratory independence, lower costs) saliva cortisol assessment can be the method of choice in basic research and clinical environments. The determination of cortisol in saliva can facilitate stress studies including newborns and infants and replace blood sampling for diagnostic endocrine tests like the dexamethasone suppression test. The present paper provides an up-to-date overview of recent methodological developments, novel applications as well as a discussion of possible future applications of salivary cortisol determination.
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              Stress-induced changes in human salivary alpha-amylase activity -- associations with adrenergic activity.

              Urs Markus Nater, Roberto La Marca, Ladina Florin … (2006)
              The salivary enzyme alpha-amylase has been proposed to indicate stress-reactive bodily changes. A previous study by the authors revealed marked increases in salivary alpha-amylase following psychosocial stress, indicating a stress-dependent activation of salivary alpha-amylase. Salivary alpha-amylase has been suggested to reflect catecholaminergic reactivity. Our aim was to assess/evaluate a possible relationship between salivary alpha-amylase and adrenergic parameters, i.e. catecholamines, as well as other stress markers. Using an intra-individual repeated measures design, 30 healthy young men underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), which consists of a mental arithmetic task and free speech in front of an audience and a control condition in randomized order. Salivary alpha-amylase and salivary cortisol as well as plasma catecholamines and cardiovascular activity were repeatedly measured before, during, and after both conditions. Significant differences were found between the stress and the rest condition in salivary alpha-amylase, salivary cortisol, plasma catecholamines, and cardiovascular parameters (heart rate, LF, HF, LF/HF). However, general alpha-amylase responses (area under the curve) were not associated with general responses in catecholamines and cortisol in the stress condition (r smaller than 0.25 for all analyses). Analysis of cardiovascular parameters indicates a positive relationship between amylase and sympathetic tone (LF/HF) during stress. Salivary alpha-amylase is sensitive to psychosocial stress. Since it does not seem to be closely related to other biological stress markers such as catecholamines and cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase may be a useful additional parameter for the measurement of stress.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                : Role: Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE
                Journal ID (publisher-id): plos
                Journal ID (pmc): plosone
                Title: PLoS ONE
                Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203
                Publication date Collection: 2012
                Publication date (Electronic): 30 July 2012
                Volume: 7
                Issue: 7
                Electronic Location Identifier: e39375
                Affiliations
                [1]Department of Neuropsychiatry, Oita University Faculty of Medicine, Yufu-Shi, Oita, Japan
                Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Germany
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: YM JA. Performed the experiments: YM AK SO TA YI YT AI JI MK H. Higuma TN JT H. Hanada. Analyzed the data: YM JA. Wrote the paper: YM JA. Discussed the results and provided comments on the paper: YM AK SO TA YI YT AI JI MK H. Higuma TN JT H. Hanada JA.

                Article
                Publisher ID: PONE-D-12-05823
                DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039375
                PMC ID: 3408464
                PubMed ID: 22859941
                SO-VID: 5a7b589b-1498-4fcf-be64-3d8e103ad04e
                Copyright statement: Copyright @ 2012
                License:

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Date received : 27 February 2012
                Date accepted : 20 May 2012
                Page count
                Pages: 10
                Funding
                This study was supported by a Grant-in-aid for scientific research (C)23591719 from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article
                Subject: Biology
                Subject: Anatomy and Physiology
                Subject: Endocrine System
                Subject: Endocrine Physiology
                Subject: Hormones
                Subject: Biochemistry
                Subject: Hormones
                Subject: Neuroscience
                Subject: Neurobiology of Disease and Regeneration
                Subject: Medicine
                Subject: Anatomy and Physiology
                Subject: Endocrine System
                Subject: Endocrine Physiology
                Subject: Hormones
                Subject: Mental Health
                Subject: Psychology
                Subject: Clinical Psychology
                Subject: Psychological Stress

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized
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                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

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