Daily Social Interactions and the Biological Stress Response: Are There Age Differences in Links Between Social Interactions and Alpha-Amylase?
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Birditt KS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6215457 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Imbalanced nutrition is associated with accelerated ageing, possibly mediated by microbiota. An analysis of the circulatory microbiota obtained from the leukocytes of participants in the MRC Twenty-07 general population cohort was performed. We now report that in this cohort, the most biologically aged exhibit a significantly higher abundance of circulatory pathogenic bacteria, including Neisseria, Rothia and Porphyromonas, while those less biologically aged possess more circulatory salutogenic (defined as being supportive of human health and wellbeing) bacteria, including Lactobacillus, Lachnospiraceae UCG-004 and Kocuria. The presence of these salutogenic bactreria is consistent with a capacity to metabolise and produce Nrf2 agonists. We also demonstrate that associated one carbon metabolism, notably betaine levels, did not vary with chronological age, but displayed a difference with socioeconomic position (SEP). Those at lower SEP possessed significantly lower betaine levels indicative of a poorer diet and poorer health span and consistent with reduced global DNA methylation levels in this group. Our data suggest a clear route to improving age related health and resilience based on dietary modulation of the microbiota.
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Project description:BackgroundCortisol 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 findingsWe 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.ConclusionsThese 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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Project description:It remains unclear how salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) levels respond to mechanical stimuli in different age groups. In addition, the role played by the sAA gene (AMY1) copy number and protein expression (glycosylated and non-glycosylated) in sAA activity has also been rarely reported. In this study, we analyzed saliva samples collected before and after citric acid stimulation from 47 child and 47 adult Chinese subjects. We observed that adults had higher sAA activity and sAA glycosylated levels (glycosylated sAA amount/total sAA amount) in basal and stimulated saliva when compared with children, while no differences were found in total or glycosylated sAA amount between them. Interestingly, adults showed attenuated sAA activity levels increase over those of children after stimulation. Correlation analysis showed that total sAA amount, glycosylated sAA amount, and AMY1 copy number × total sAA amount were all positively correlated with sAA activity before and after stimulation in both groups. Interestingly, correlation r between sAA levels (glycosylated sAA amount and total sAA amount) and sAA activity decreased after stimulation in children, while adults showed an increase in correlation r. In addition, the correlation r between AMY1 copy number × total sAA amount and sAA activity was higher than that between AMY1 copy number, total sAA amount, and sAA activity, respectively. Taken together, our results suggest that total sAA amount, glycosylated sAA amount, and the positive interaction between AMY1 copy number and total sAA amount are crucial in influencing sAA activity before and after stimulation in children and adults.
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Project description:Recent evidence suggests negative associations between received social support and emotional well-being. So far, these studies mainly focused on younger adults. Quantity and quality of social support changes with age; therefore, this study investigated whether there are age differences regarding the association between received social support and positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). Moreover, it was tested whether these age effects might be due to a differential effectiveness of different sources of support for younger and older individuals. Forty-two individuals (21 younger adults, aged 21-40 and 21 older adults, aged 61-73) completed 30-daily diaries on their received social support, PA/NA and the sources of support provision. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Results indicated age-related differential effects: for younger individuals, received social support was negatively associated with indicators of emotional well-being, whereas these associations were positive for older respondents. Regarding NA, these effects held when testing lagged predictions and controlling for previous-day affect. No age differences emerged regarding the associations between different sources of support and indicators of affect. Conceptual implications of these age-differential findings are discussed.
| S-EPMC5549105 | biostudies-other
Project description:Transcriptome analysis was used to investigate the global stress response of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis caused by overproduction of the well-secreted AmyQ α-amylase from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Analyses of the control and overproducing strains were carried out at the end of exponential growth and in stationary phase, when protein secretion from B. subtilis is optimal. Among the genes that showed increased expression were htrA and htrB, which are part of the CssRS regulon that responds to high-level protein secretion and heat stress. The analysis of the transcriptome profiles of a cssS mutant compared to the wild-type, under identical secretion stress conditions, revealed several genes with altered transcription in a CssRS-dependent manner, for example citM, ylxF, yloA, ykoJ and several genes of the flgB operon. However, a high affinity CssR-binding was only observed for htrA and htrB, and possibly for citM. In addition, the DNA macroarray approach reveal that several genes of the sporulation pathway are downregulated by AmyQ overexpression, and a group of motility-specific (σD-dependent) transcripts were clearly upregulated. Subsequent flow cytometric analyses demonstrate that upon overproduction of AmyQ as well as a non-secretable variant of the α-amylase, the process of sporulation is severely inhibited. The same experiments were implemented to investigate the expression levels of the hag promoter, a well-established reporter for σD-dependent gene expression. This approach confirmed the observations based on our DNA macroarray analyses and led us to conclude that expression levels of several genes involved in motility are maintained at high levels under all conditions of α-amylase overproduction. Secretion stress was applied by overproducing the well-secreted AmyQ α-amylase (pKTH10 vector) from B. amyloliquefaciens. Besides examining secretion stress in wild-type cells, we compared transcriptome profiles of a cssS mutant strain under conditions of high-level AmyQ production. Samples for transcriptome analyses were collected at the late exponential growth stage (one hour before the transition point) and 3 hours upon entry in the stationary growth phase. Three independent cultures of each strain were used and cells were sampled for macroarray experiments. Duplicate spots were averaged in Array-Pro software (Media Cybernetics, Inc.) and the signal was normalized after background subtraction by calculation of the percentage of total signal per gene using Microsoft Excel.
2007-10-01 | E-GEOD-8014 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Transcriptome analysis was used to investigate the global stress response of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis caused by overproduction of the well-secreted AmyQ α-amylase from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Analyses of the control and overproducing strains were carried out at the end of exponential growth and in stationary phase, when protein secretion from B. subtilis is optimal. Among the genes that showed increased expression were htrA and htrB, which are part of the CssRS regulon that responds to high-level protein secretion and heat stress. The analysis of the transcriptome profiles of a cssS mutant compared to the wild-type, under identical secretion stress conditions, revealed several genes with altered transcription in a CssRS-dependent manner, for example citM, ylxF, yloA, ykoJ and several genes of the flgB operon. However, a high affinity CssR-binding was only observed for htrA and htrB, and possibly for citM. In addition, the DNA macroarray approach reveal that several genes of the sporulation pathway are downregulated by AmyQ overexpression, and a group of motility-specific (σD-dependent) transcripts were clearly upregulated. Subsequent flow cytometric analyses demonstrate that upon overproduction of AmyQ as well as a non-secretable variant of the α-amylase, the process of sporulation is severely inhibited. The same experiments were implemented to investigate the expression levels of the hag promoter, a well-established reporter for σD-dependent gene expression. This approach confirmed the observations based on our DNA macroarray analyses and led us to conclude that expression levels of several genes involved in motility are maintained at high levels under all conditions of α-amylase overproduction. Keywords: secretion stress response
2007-10-01 | GSE8014 | GEO
Project description:The lack of social contact or good social relationships has been linked with cognitive decline and higher risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. One important but unexamined question is how daily social interactions relate to older adults' cognitive function in daily life. The present study examined how changes in daily social interactions related to fluctuations in older adults' performance on mobile cognitive tests from day to day. Using an ecological momentary assessments approach, 312 older adults (aged 70 to 90 years) completed surveys on social interactions and mobile cognitive tests five times a day for 16 consecutive days using smartphones. Multilevel modeling was used for analyses. Results demonstrated that having more daily social interactions, especially more pleasant social interactions, related to better cognitive performance the same day and over the subsequent two days. Cognitive performance, however, did not predict subsequent changes in social interactions across days. At the between-person level, older adults who had more (vs. less) frequent interactions with close partners on average, especially with their friends, had better cognitive performance. Finally, the average levels of social interactions also moderated the within-person associations between daily social interactions and the same-day cognitive performance. In sum, results from this study highlight the importance of having pleasant social interactions and frequent interactions with friends for older adults' cognitive function in daily life, and have important implications for future behavioral interventions targeting certain features of daily social interactions to reduce risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
| S-EPMC8389411 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Salivary alpha-amylase activity (sAA) and plasma noradrenaline (NA) concentrations are often considered to be surrogate markers of sympathetic activation in response to stress. However, despite accumulating evidence for a close association between sAA and noradrenaline and other indicators of sympathetic activity, reliability and generality of this relation remains unclear. We employed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in order to directly compare the responses in sAA and NA to psychological stress in healthy volunteers (n = 23). The TSST significantly increased sAA and NA plasma levels with no significant differences in females and males. However, when subjects were divided according to their NA responses into low versus high responders, both groups did not significantly differ in their sAA before, during or after stress exposure. These data suggest that in response to acute psychological stress both plasma NA levels and sAA reflect sympathetic activity, however seemed to increase independently from each other.
| S-EPMC4527714 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAlthough many studies have suggested social participation (SP) has beneficial effects on elderly people's health, most of them failed to deal with paid work. Additionally, few studies have focused on the age effect between SP and older people's health. To investigate whether the association between SP, including paid work, and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), exhibits not only in gender, but also in age among community-dwelling older adults.MethodsIn 2014, we distributed self-administered questionnaires to all community-dwelling elderly aged ?65 in two medium-sized cities in Nara Prefecture, Japan (n = 32,825). 22,845 residents submitted the questionnaire (response rate, 69.6%). Analyzed subjects were limited to 17,680 persons who had neither dependency in basic ADL nor missing data for required items. SP was assessed based on participation frequency in seven types of social activities: volunteer groups, sports groups, hobby groups, cultural groups, senior citizens' clubs, neighborhood community associations, and paid work. Using Poisson regression models, prevalence ratio for poor IADL was calculated. To examine age and gender differences in the association between SP and IADL, we performed stratified analyses by age and gender group; male young-old (aged 65-74), male old-old (aged ?75), female young-old, and female old-old.ResultsPrevalence of those with poor IADL was 17.1% in males and 4.5% in females, showing a significant gender difference. After adjustment for relevant covariates, volunteer groups were inversely associated with poor IADL only in males and the relationship was stronger in the old-old group than in the young-old group. Conversely, only females had a significant inverse association between paid work and poor IADL, and the association was not reliant on their ages but only those who participated infrequently had a favorable effect. Influence of age in the beneficial association between SP and IADL was generally larger in the old-old group than in the young-old group, but hobby groups were inversely associated with poor IADL, regardless of age, gender, and frequency.ConclusionsOur results suggest that SP in older age is positively associated with IADL, however, the association seems to differ depending on the type of activities participated in, the participants' gender, and their age.
| S-EPMC5410028 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The gene aml encoding alpha-amylase in Streptomyces lividans was cloned in the multicopy plasmid pIJ486, generating plasmid pAMI11. Plasmid pAMI11 and pIJ486 were propagated in S. lividans TK21 to obtain S. lividans TK21(pAMI11) and its isogenic strain S. lividans TK21(pIJ486). Transcriptional profiling of the bacterium that overproduces alpha-amylase mainly resulted in the upregulation of genes involved in the biogenesis and function of ribosomes, together with the upregulation of the genes involved in the redox processes, the ABC transporters, the central carbon, aminoacid and purine /pyrimidine metabolism. Moreover, some genes involved in oxidative stress were upregulated. The number of genes downregulated was much lower than the upregulated ones. Therefore, bacteria respond by favouring alpha-amylase overproduction that apparently does not cause damage to the cell. All microarray analyses were performed with RNA samples obtained from three independent cultures grown under identical conditions. The cDNA obtained from each RNA preparation of the alpha-amylase overproducer strain was hybridised with the cDNA obtained from the equivalent RNA preparation of the isogenic strain (S. lividans TK21 [pIJ486]).
2015-07-23 | E-GEOD-61448 | biostudies-arrayexpress