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. 2023 May:110:212-221.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2023.02.018. Epub 2023 Mar 8.

Life stressors and immune aging: Protective effects of cognitive reappraisal

Rebecca G Reed  1 , Steven R Presnell  2 , Ahmad Al-Attar  3 , Charles T Lutz  4 , Suzanne C Segerstrom  5
Affiliations

Life stressors and immune aging: Protective effects of cognitive reappraisal

Rebecca G Reed et al. Brain Behav Immun. 2023 May.

Abstract

Stressful life events may accelerate aspects of immune aging, but habitual use of an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal, may attenuate these effects. This study examined whether cognitive reappraisal moderates the associations between life stressor frequency and stressor desirability on aspects of immune aging, including late-differentiated CD8+ T and natural killer (NK) cells and inflammatory markers (IL-6, TNF-α, and CRP), both between and within people in a longitudinal sample of 149 older adults (mean age = 77.8, range: 64-92 years). Participants reported stressful life events, use of cognitive reappraisal, and provided blood semiannually for up to 5 years to assess aspects of immune aging. Multilevel models, adjusted for demographic and health covariates, tested the between-person (stable, trait-like differences) and within-person associations (dynamic fluctuations) among life stressors and reappraisal on immune aging. Experiencing more frequent life stressors than usual was associated with higher levels of late-differentiated NK cells within person, but this effect was accounted for by experiencing health-related stressors. Unexpectedly, experiencing more frequent and less desirable stressors were associated with lower average levels of TNF-α. As expected, reappraisal moderated the associations between life stressors and late-differentiated NK cells between people and IL-6 within people. Specifically, older adults who experienced less desirable stressors but also used more reappraisal had significantly lower proportions of late-differentiated NK cells on average and lower levels of IL-6 within-person. These results suggest cognitive reappraisal may play a protective role in attenuating the effects of stressful life events on aspects of innate immune aging in older adults.

Keywords: Aging; Emotion regulation; Immunosenescence; Inflammaging; Stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The between-person effects of stressor desirability on late-differentiated NK cells (%) at low (−1 SD) and high (+ 1 SD) average levels of cognitive reappraisal. Error bars represent standard errors of the estimates. The model was adjusted for age at first wave, time, gender, lab scientist, and average CMV antibody levels. Simple slopes: low reappraisal=−0.11 [−0.19, −0.024], p=.012; high reappraisal= 0.016 [−0.049, 0.081], p=.62.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The within-person effects of stressor desirability on IL-6 (log transformed, in Z-units) at low (−1 SD) and high (+1 SD) levels of cognitive reappraisal. Error bars represent standard errors of the estimates. The model was adjusted for age at first wave, time, gender, average BMI, and statin use. Simple slopes: low reappraisal=−0.052 [−0.10, −0.004], p=.036; high reappraisal=0.045 [−0.003, 0.092], p=.064.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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