Cross-sectional study reveals altered inflammatory proteins and reduced BDNF in stressed young females, suggesting impaired neuronal plasticity.
Key Points
To examine the associations between perceived psychological stress, systemic inflammatory protein profiles, and neurological biomarkers such as BDNF in healthy young adult women.
Cross-sectional evaluation of healthy females aged 18–35 in Shanghai, China, stratified into high perceived stress (HS) and low perceived stress (LS) cohorts using self-reported subjective questionnaires.
High-throughput proteomic profiling of 92 inflammation- and immune-related proteins using the Olink platform.
Targeted quantification of stress-associated neurological biomarkers, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and oxytocin, via ELISA with age-stratified subgroup analyses (18–25, 25–30, and 30–35 years).
Participants with high perceived stress exhibited significantly elevated levels of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-binding protein 1 (4E-BP1, log2FC = 0.565) and sirtuin 2 (SIRT2, log2FC = 0.383).
BDNF levels were significantly decreased in the late young adult group (ages 30–35) and demonstrated a moderate negative correlation with both 4E-BP1 and SIRT2.
Pro-inflammatory and immunomodulatory cytokines interleukin-8 (IL-8) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were significantly elevated among stressed females in the 30–35 age cohort.