(P-BC-1) Blood inflammatory markers depend on blood donors stress type feelings

Background/Case Studies: Labile blood products can occasionally trigger inflammatory responses in recipients. Psychosocial stressors, which are identified as a risk for mental health disorders, may also contribute to neuroinflammation. Stressful life events have been associated with elevated levels of proinflammatory molecules. 

The aim of this study was to assess soluble inflammatory markers in blood donors' while they donated, focusing on perceived stress from family, work or from the act of donating.

Study

Design/Methods: In a randomized trial assessing various approaches to reduce blood donation associated fainting (EVASION study), all included donors prospectively completed questionnaires to assess their stress from these sources, and blood samples were collected for cytokine analysis.

The donors answered the following questions with yes or no:  “Do you experience no stress before donating blood?”, “Do you encounter family-related stress before donating blood?”, “Do you undergo work-related stress before donating blood?”, and “Do you feel stress associated with the act of donating blood before the donation process?”, and to what extent they felt puncture pain on a scale from 0 = low to 9 = high. 

The blood samples were centrifuged and analysed by ELISA of the following biological response modifiers: Cortisol (ng/ml), RANTES (pg/ml), sCD40L (pg/ml), IL-2 (pg/ml), IL-4 (pg/ml), IL-6 (pg/ml), IL-10 (pg/ml) and Serotonin (ng/ml).

Results/Findings:

Cortisol levels were higher in donors who experienced blood donation related stress as compared to donors who did not experience any type of stress (No stress: 185 +/- 83 vs stress: 254 +/- 198 ng/mL, p=.0238.

This pattern was the same for men (No stress: 175 +/- 75 vs stress: 271 +/- 111 ng/mL, p = .0235) and women (no stress: 196 +/- 91 vs stress: 287 +/- 247 ng/mL, p = 00440). Furthermore, the molecule RANTES was only significantly higher in donors who experienced family stress (No stress: 19776 +/- 22406 vs stress: 30760 +/- 32930 ng/mL, p = 0.0451, which was again found for both men (No stress: 17961 +/- 20684 vs stress: 34331+/- 37611 ng/mL, p = .0325) and women (no stress: 18991 +/- 23062 vs stress: 36816 +/- 23255 ng/mL, p= .0139).

Finally, a significant increase in the concentration of soluble sCD40L in the plasma of donors is observed only in the group who only experienced stress related to blood donation, but not the other two stress types, except for the men donor groups (All donors: 189 +/- 211 vs 349 +/- 574 ng/mL, p=0.0059; men: 186 +/- 210 vs 263 +/- 204 ng/mL, p=0.6784; Women: 191 +/- 215 vs 435 +/- 782 ng/mL, p=0.0026).

Conclusions:

These findings suggest that stress experienced before blood donation may influence the inflammatory profile of blood components.

Further research is needed to explore the impact of donors' experiences of psychosocial stressors on transfusion outcomes and on blood components characteristics and potential impacts on transfusion outcomes.