ABSTRACT
A recently released briefing by the National Academy of Sciences (1989) reviewing behavioral influences on endocrine and immune function highlighted the importance of studying the effects of psychosocial stressors on immune functioning among individuals with well-defined immunologic abnormalities in order to ascertain the biological significance of affective distress and behavioral arousal. Among other things this report stressed the need for future work to:
collect adequate baseline immunologic information from which to assess stressor-induced changes,
employ age- and gender-matched control groups and to carefully assess (and covary) the potential influence of medications on immune function,
examine the role of neural, neuroendocrine, and neuropeptide mediation of stressor-induced immunomodulation by studying not only the peripheral levels of these substances but also the nature of their ligand-like interaction with lymphocyte receptors (e.g., beta-2 adrenergic receptors),
evaluate the role of the host's immunological structural integrity when testing the effects of behavioral and neuroendocrine changes on immune function,
employ flourescence-activated cell sorting procedures to isolate specific lymphocyte subsets (e.g., helper-inducer cells) in tissue culture in order to examine which stressor-associated ligands they respond to separately and how such ligands synergize (e.g., Cortisol and epinephrine) in their immunomodulatory actions,
140study the effects of such stressor-related ligands on lymphokine production and the regulation of lymphocyte post-receptor activity (e.g., gene expression), and
to demonstrate the biological significance of stressor-related immune changes by documenting changes in health outcomes (e.g., emergence of symptoms)concurrently with or subsequent to immunomodulation.
