Acute psychological stress increases paracellular permeability and modulates immune activity in rectal mucosa of healthy volunteers.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Within-subject controlled experimental challenge study in healthy volunteers (randomization not specified in abstract)
PubMed 36314901 · doi:10.1002/ueg2.12329
What was done
Healthy volunteers underwent an acute psychological stress challenge (dichotomous listening) and a control session. Endoscopic mucosal biopsies were collected from the rectosigmoid region after each condition. Paracellular and transcellular epithelial permeability were measured ex vivo using modified Ussing chambers. Mucosal molecular responses were evaluated using microarray RNA expression confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR and biological pathway analysis.
What was found
The abstract does not provide exact numerical effect sizes, baseline values, or p-values. It reports that acute psychological stress induced subjective and objective stress responses and significantly increased paracellular permeability, with no effect on transcellular permeability. Acute stress reduced RNA expression of innate immunity genes (DUOX2), immune cell homing markers (chemokines CCL21, CXCL13, CCL19; receptors CCR7, CXCR5), and immune cell activation genes (CR2, CD20, TCLA1, BANK1, CD22, FDCSP). Eight of the top ten downregulated genes were involved in B-cell activation, signaling, and migration. Systemic stress responses correlated positively with paracellular permeability and negatively with DUOX2 expression.
Why it matters
This study provides direct evidence in humans that acute psychological stress impairs the mucosal barrier and alters local immune gene expression in the lower gastrointestinal tract, offering a mechanistic link between stress and colorectal disease exacerbation.
Limits
The abstract does not state the sample size (n), participant demographics, order of sessions, or whether session sequence was randomized. No numerical measurements, confidence intervals, or precise statistical metrics are provided. The study examined acute laboratory stress in healthy individuals, which may not reflect chronic stress states or clinical patient populations.
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