BACKGROUND Heavy exercise stresses immune function, however carbohydrate (CHO) supplementation has been shown to attenuate the decline in some measures of immune function after exercise. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of CHO supplementation on salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) levels, interleukin 2 (IL-2), and interleukin 5 (IL-5), following an acute bout of resistance e...

Intranasal (i.n.) immunization with bacterial protein antigens coupled to cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) effectively induces mucosal, especially salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA), and nonmucosal antibody responses in mice. To examine the regional distribution of antigen-specific B and T cells after i.n. immunization, antibody-secreting cells and antigen-responsive T cells in cervical lymph nodes (...

Stress-induced impairments of mucosal immunity may increase susceptibility to infectious diseases. The present study investigated the association of perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and loneliness with salivary levels of secretory immunoglobulin A (S-IgA), the subclasses S-IgA1, S-IgA2, and their transporter molecule Secretory Component (SC). S-IgA/SC, IgA1/SC and IgA2/SC ratios were calc...

Patients with the hyperimmunoglobulin E and recurrent infection syndrome (HIE) characteristically have frequent skin and respiratory infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus. We have developed a set of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays that use whole S. aureus (Wood's strain) immobilized on 0.22-micrometers filters and highly specific, affinity-purified enzyme conjugates of goat anti-human I...

Synthetic peptide vaccines which are derived from functional domains of Streptococcus mutans glucosyltransferases (GTF) have been shown to induce protective immunity in Sprague-Dawley rats after subcutaneous injection in the salivary gland region. Since mucosal induction of salivary immunity would be preferable in humans, we explored methods to induce mucosal antibody in the rat to the GTF pept...

The current study analyses the evolution of different human stress markers during an 8 h exposure to a Mediterranean Holm oak forest. We conducted pre-post with thirty-one subjects in which saliva samples were collected before (baseline) and after 1, 2, 4 h. Our results show: (A) significant decrease cortisol concentrations from second hour until end compared basal time; (B) increase alpha amyl...

PURPOSE Exercise and training are known to elicit changes in mucosal humoral immunity, but whether these alterations have any impact on competitive performance remains unclear. This investigation examined relationships between salivary immunoglobulin (Ig) concentration, the incidence of respiratory tract illness (RTI), and competitive performance in elite swimmers. METHODS Forty-one members o...