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. 2022 Sep 2:13:776917.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.776917. eCollection 2022.

Disruption of cellular immune response among male rotating night shift workers in Spain- The HORMONIT study

Barbara N Harding  1   2   3 , Ruth Aguilar  4 , Ana Espinosa  1   2   3 , Gemma Castaño-Vinyals  1   2   3   5 , Kyriaki Papantoniou  6 , José Maria Navarrete  7 , Patricia Such Faro  7 , Antonio Torrejón  7 , Carlota Dobaño  4   8 , Gemma Moncunill  4   8 , Manolis Kogevinas  1   2   3   5
Affiliations

Disruption of cellular immune response among male rotating night shift workers in Spain- The HORMONIT study

Barbara N Harding et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Preliminary studies suggest that night shift work is associated with a desynchronization of rhythmic immune markers, possibly explaining the increased risk of infection, cardiometabolic disorders, and cancer in shift workers.

Methods: This study included 51 male rotating shift workers from a car industry in Barcelona, Spain, sampled twice toward the end of a 3-week night shift (22:00-06:00 h) and a 3-week day shift (06:00-14:00 h) rotation. We collected four blood samples per worker, at the start and end of each shift. We measured 27 cytokines, chemokines and growth factors in plasma samples by luminex using the Cytokine Human Magnetic 30-Plex Panel LHC6003M and applied linear mixed models to examine within-person associations between shift work and analytes' concentrations, comparing samples taken at 06:00 h on a day and night shift. We also conducted a factor analysis using analyte concentrations from all 4 time points for each individual to identify common factors and determine if these factors were altered by shift work.

Results: We observed lower levels of 15 analytes in the night shift compared to the day shift including cytokines (pro-inflammatory TNF-α, IL-2R; anti-inflammatory IL1-RA; Th1 IL-2, Th2 IL-4 and Th17 Il-17), chemokines (IP-10, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, RANTES) and growth factors (EGF, G-CSF, HGF, VEGF, FGF). In a factor analysis, three factors were identified. The main factor (Factor 1), explaining 57% of the variance and including IL-1β, IL-12, IL-15, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, EGF and FGF; and another factor (Factor 3) explaining 10% of the variance and including the Th1 cytokine IL-12, were inversely associated with the night shift (coefficient: -0.17, 95%CI -0.32 to -0.01 and coefficient: -0.22, 95%CI -0.38, -0.06, for Factors 1 and 3, respectively). Our results indicate that night shift disrupts the levels of several immune markers, which could contribute to the increased risk of infections and cancer reported in night shift workers.

Conclusion: Night shift is associated with disruption of multiple immune response pathways.

Keywords: chemokines; cytokines; growth factors; immune response; night shift; rotating night shift workers.

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Conflict of interest statement

JN, PF and AT work at the Occupational Health service of the car factory, which was the setting of the present study. At the HORMONIT study working group they express their own views and do not represent the company. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timing of blood collection. This figure shows when blood samples were collected for each participant. A total of 4 samples were collected. Two samples were collected on a day shift during the 2nd or 3rd week of the rotation (one sample at the start and one at the end of the shift) and two samples were collected on a night shift during the 2nd or 3rd week of the rotation (one sample at the start and one at the end of the shift).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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