RESEARCH ARTICLE


Biomarkers of Psychological Stress in Health Disparities Research



Zora Djurica, *, Chloe E. Birdb, Alice Furumoto-Dawson c, Garth H. Rauscher d, Mack T. Ruffin IV a, Raymond P. Stowee, Katherine L. Tucker f, Christopher M. Masi c
a University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
b Rand Corporation, CA
c University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
d University of Illinois, Chicago IL
e Microgen Laboratories, La Marque, TX and
f Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2008
Volume: 1
First Page: 7
Last Page: 19
Publisher ID: TOBIOMJ-1-7
DOI: 10.2174/1875318300801010007

Article History:

Received Date: 24/03/2008
Revision Received Date: 28/04/2008
Acceptance Date: 13/06/2008
Electronic publication date: 5/9/2008
Collection year: 2008

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Creative Commons License
© 2008 Djuric et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the University of Michigan, 1500 E. Hospital Drive, Room 2150 Cancer and Geriatrics Center, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0930; USA; Tel: 734-615-6210; Fax: 734-647-9817; E-mail: zoralong@umich.edu


Abstract

Psychological stress can contribute to health disparities in populations that are confronted with the recurring stress of everyday life. A number of biomarkers have been shown to be affected by psychological stress. These biomarkers include allostatic load, which is a summary measure of the cumulative biological burden of the repeated attempts to adapt to daily stress. Allostatic load includes effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, the sympathetic nervous system and the cardiovascular system. These in turn affect the immune system via bidirectional signaling pathways. Evidence is also building that psychological stress, perhaps via heightened inflammatory states, can increase oxidative stress levels and DNA damage. The inter-relationships of ethnicity, genotype, gene expression and ability to adequately mitigate stress response are just starting to be appreciated. The need to conduct these studies in disadvantaged populations is clear and requires methods to address potential logistical barriers. Biomarkers can help characterize and quantify the biological impact of psychological stress on the etiology of health disparities.

Keywords: Psychosocial stress, health disparities, allostatic load, oxidative stress.