By News Editor, July 1, 2020, Science Mission.
In their search for what triggers the damaging side-effects caused by acute psychological stress, the researchers found an answer by doing a fat check.
In the face of psychological stress, an immune system response that can significantly worsen inflammatory responses originates in brown fat cells, the team reports in the journal Cell.
Since the hormones associated with stress, cortisol and adrenaline, generally decrease inflammation, it has long puzzled researchers how stress can worsen health problems such as diabetes and autoimmune disease as well as depression and anxiety.
"In the clinic, we have all seen super-stressful events that make inflammatory disease worse, and that never made sense to us," said the corresponding author of the study.
The scientists found that it was an immune system cell -- the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) -- that triggers inflammation in times of stress. IL-6 has also been shown to play a role in autoimmune diseases, cancer, obesity, diabetes, depression and anxiety.
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