Examination of the Psychoneuroimmunological Mechanism in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

埼玉県越谷市Recently, great attention has been paid to the NK cell and cytokine activity associated with the progression of atherosclerosis, followed by angina pectoris and myocardial infarction. Moreover, psychological stress has been also reported to affect the immune response. Thus, the psychological factors are considered to influence the immune response, and excessive immune response promotes the progression of arteriosclerosis, resulting in the development of Coronary heart disease(CHD).The present study was planned to evaluate the relationship among the immune responses, autonomic nervous activity, and psychological factors in patients with CHD and normal controls. To summarize the psychological scales, we conducted a factor analysis with promax rotation in each group. Scores for the resulting factors (factor scores) were calculated for each subject.The path analysis was done on NK cell activity, peakVO_2, LF/HF ratio, and psychological factor scores, in each group. With these results, it was confirmed that homeostatic mechanism might have worked in normals. It was strongly suggested that the psycho-neuro-immunological balance might be out of order in patients with CHD. We speculate that this linkage significantly influences the development of CHD.This study was not a prospective study, therefore, it is not certain whether the development of disease influenced the immune response, or psychological factors influenced the immune response and thereby induced the development of disease. Thus, further study is necessary to clear the points.Moreover, it is necessary to conduct detailed studies of other immunocompetent cells, especially T cells, and cytokines in the future