Stress the immune cells
Glucocorticoids, which are produced during “prolonged” stress, can disrupt T cell balance, by inhibiting the proliferation of splenic immune cells resulting in decreased CD8+ T cells, resulting in a markedly raised susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. T cells, both CD4+ (T Helper cells) and CD8+ (T Cytotoxic cells), can destroy virally and or bacterially infected cells, including cancer cells, attract macrophages and other immune cells via secretions that exhibit chemotaxis, and possess immunological memory (Cardiff University, 2009)
T cell balance can be disrupted which can result in cells that are meant to protect, beginning to attack the body and destroy it. Similarly, like prenatal stress, chronic stress can also inhibit immune cell development at the production phase in the bone marrow, however in addition, it affects the stromal cells responsible for providing a conducive environment for immune cell production, as Yan asserts (2012).
|