抄録
It is often reported that psychosocial stress many influence the autonomic nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. In this study, Natural Killer (NK) activity in oral patients with closely related psychosocial factors was measured in order to examine the relation to the immune function and psychological tests. The results were as follows:
Twenty-one patients, 2 males and 19 females with a mean age of 51.4 years, were used in this study. There were 8 cases of glossalgia, 7 of ulalgia, 2 of odontalgia, 2 of relapsing aphthous stomatitis, one of gnathoarthritis, and one of xerostomia. NK activity averaged 27.11±14.74. The subjects were divided into two groups, one of the 11 patients with NK activity below the mean and the other of the 10 patients with higher than mean values. Regarding the immune function, CD4 was 40.2±8.29 in the high and 50.76±10.86 in the low NK activity groups, showing a significant difference between the two. The CD8 figures were 29.36±6.29 and 21.05±5.17, respectively, also showing a significant difference. In the psychological tests, the rated score of the high NK activity group by Inoue's masked depression questionnaire was 17.89±4.27, showing a tendency towards depression in that group. In the low NK activity group, the score was 13.55±6.15, again revealing a significant difference between the two groups, though one of 10 % or below. These findings indicate that the strength of the depressive tendency may influence NK activity.
