Acute psychological stress increases peripheral blood CD3+CD56+ natural killer T cells in healthy men: possible implications for the development and treatment of allergic and autoimmune disorders.

AbstractAcute psychological stress has primarily been investigated regarding its effects on conventional lymphocytes such as natural killer (NK) cells and CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. However, it might be important to focus on more “specialized” lymphocyte subsets, playing a role, for instance, in allergic conditions and autoimmunity, to identify links between stress, the immune system and somatic diseases. Using flow cytometry we determined frequencies of circulating T helper (Th)1-type (CD226+) and Th2-type (CRTH2+) T cells, γδ T cells, conventional CD56+ natural killer T (NKT) cells and invariant NKT cells (iNKT) in healthy young males (N = 31; median age 26 years) undergoing a laboratory computer-based stressor lasting 12 min. We found that acute psychological stress induced a prolonged increase in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells expressing a Th2 phenotype. We also detected an acute increase in CD4− and CD8− double negative γδ T cells. Finally, we found that the well-known increase in NK cells under stressful conditi...