| Autor: |
Paul J, Mills, Karen A, Adler, Joel E, Dimsdale, Christy J, Perez, Michael G, Ziegler, Sonia, Ancoli-Israel, Thomas L, Patterson, Igor, Grant |
| Rok vydání: |
2004 |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. 12(3) |
| ISSN: |
1064-7481 |
| Popis: |
The chronic stress of caregiving may lead to sympathetic nervous system activation and immune suppression. beta(2)-adrenergic receptors are expressed on all immune cells and contribute to the stress-induced loss of immune-cell function. The authors examined the effects of being a spousal caregiver of a patient with Alzheimer disease (AD) on the lymphocyte beta(2)-adrenergic receptor.One hundred and six women and men, spousal caregivers and non-caregivers, participated (mean age: 71.5 years). Caregivers were classified as either vulnerable or non-vulnerable on the basis of the amount of care required by the patient relative to the amount of respite the caregiver received during the previous 6 months. beta(2)-adrenergic receptor sensitivity (cyclic-AMP response to isoproterenol stimulation) and density (radioligand binding) were determined by use of whole lymphocytes.Vulnerable caregivers had reduced beta(2)-adrenergic receptor sensitivity and density when compared with their non-vulnerable counterparts or with non-caregivers.The findings indicate that for more vulnerable caregivers, the stress of caregiving leads to a loss of lymphocyte beta(2)-adrenergic receptors. This finding may be relevant to previous observations of clinically-relevant reduced immunity in highly stressed caregivers of AD patients. |
| Databáze: |
OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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