This proposed 5 year project extends our previous NIMH-funded studies of endocrine and immune responses to stressors in HIV-1 seropositive and seronegative individuals by: (a) moving the focus of investigation from field observations to an experimental laboratory manipulation; and (b) extending observations made on asymptomatic HIV-1 seropositive nonHispanic White men to African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, women and symptomatic HIV-1 infected individuals. Thus, the project would examine autonomic neuroendocrine and immune responses to an evaluative speech stressor in 306 (of 342 recruited) subjects incorporated into a 3 (African-American, nonHispanic White-American, Hispanic-American) X 3 (HIV-1 seronegative, asymptomatic HIV-1 seropositive, symptomatic but pre-AIDS HIV-1 seropositive) X 2 (women, men) design. The major aim of the project would be to assess autonomic (blood pressure, cardiac output, peripheral resistance), stress hormone (plasma catecholamines, ACTH, cortisol) and immune (CD4, CD8, CD56 lymphocytes, natural killer cell cytotoxicity [NKCC], phytohemagglutinin [PHA] stimulation profile) responses to the evaluative speech stressor as a function of serostatus and symptoms, ethnicity, and gender. This project would also examine the impact of aerobic fitness and anger related variables on the obtained stress responses.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 54 publications
