Allison Dahl
Biology 1615
Monday at 4:00
October 6, 2014
Science Article Paper Outline

“Bereavement reduces neutrophil oxidative burst only in older adults: role of the HPA axis and immunesenescence”

http://immunityaging.com/content/11/1/13

I. Introduction A. The effect of chronic stress of bereavement on immunity is not well understood.
B. The study compared the effects of bereavement on neutrophil function in young and old adults including serum levels of stress hormones, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS).

II. Materials and Methods
A. Bereaved participants and controls were reasonably well matched on most socio-demographic and health behavior variables in both young and old groups with the exception of occupational status and medications in the young.41
B. 41 young and 52 older participants, bereaved and not-bereaved, took part in the study.
C. Questionnaires
a. Socio-demographic
b. Health behavior characteristics
c. Psycho-social behaviors
D. Blood work.
a. Neutrophil function
b. Stress hormone analysis

III. Results
A. Bereaved in both groups reported more symptoms of depression and anxiety than controls.
B. Neutrophil function
a. Younger participants showed higher phagocytosis overall than older adults, but there was no overall main effect of bereavement.
b. Older participants had higher neutrophil superoxide burst than younger subjects. There was no main effect of bereavement overall.
C. Serum stress hormone concentrations
a. Older bereaved subjects had higher cortisol levels than controls while there was no difference the young.
b. Older bereaved had lower DHEAS than non-bereaved older controls, while the levels of this hormone were comparable between the groups on the young.
D. Psychological factors and immune and hormone measures within the bereaved group.
a. Correlations within the bereaved revealed no association between neutrophil function and any of the psychosocial and socio-demographic variables.
b. When bereaved participants were separated into two groups based on who they had losg , there was a difference between the groups in their cortisol:DHEAD ratios, such