Symptom severity predicts degree of T cell activation in adult women following childhood maltreatment

Abstract

Although depression is often associated with a reduction in cellular immune responses, other types of emotional disturbance and psychopathology can activate certain aspects of immunity. Activation markers on T cells, in particular, have been found to be elevated in post-traumatic stress states. However, little is known about the relationship between the severity of PTSD symptoms and the degree of change in T cell phenotypes, or about the potential role of neuroendocrine factors in mediating the association. Twenty-four women with a history of sexual trauma during childhood, including 11 who met diagnostic criteria for PTSD, were compared to 12 age-matched, healthy women without a history of maltreatment. The women provided fasted blood samples for enumeration of cell subsets by immunofluorescence and 24-h urine samples for analysis of catecholamine and cortisol levels. The percent of T cells expressing CD45RA, an early activation marker, was higher in the PTSD diagnosed women, and the levels correlated positively with intrusive symptoms and negatively with avoidant symptoms. These alterations in cell surface markers did not appear to be mediated by norepinephrine (NE) or cortisol, making them a distinctive and independent biomarker of arousal and disturbance in PTSD.

Fig. 1

This scatterplot shows the association between intrusion scores and T cell activation (% CD4+45RA+) obtained in the first regression analysis (See Table 3), standardized β = .84, p < .01.To facilitate the subsequent discussion of the statistical analyses, the post hoc group designations are shown, which illustrates the overlap in intrusion scores across the three groups. Control women are indicated by circles, PTSD- women by squares, and PTSD+ women by the triangles.