THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ACUTE PAIN AND MOOD IN INFLAMMATION THROUGH COMPLEMENT WITHIN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
Open Access
- Author:
- Sinha, Anjana
- Area of Honors:
- Biobehavioral Health
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Jennifer Elizabeth Graham, Thesis Supervisor
Jennifer Elise Graham Engeland, Thesis Supervisor
Subhashinie Kariyawasam, Faculty Reader
David John Vandenbergh, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- rheumatoid arthritis. complement system
- Abstract:
- Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disorder that degrades the synovial joints of the skeletal system and is estimated to affect 2.1 million individuals within the United States alone. In women with RA, the degree to which both acute and recent pain and stress were associated with two key components of the complement system was investigated. The key molecules of interest were: C-reactive Protein (CRP) and complement protein C5a. C5a is a downstream protein fragment and prostaglandin precursor with no previous measurement or linkage with stress in this population to my knowledge. CRP is known to be an indicator of RA severity and is linked to psychological stress. The goals of the present investigation were to determine if a) it is possible to obtain levels of C5a in this population, b) whether C5a is associated with CRP and c) if these molecules are correlated with pain and stress indicators. I hypothesized that C5a and CRP would be associated and individually linked with markers of pain and stress, particularly acute pain and stress as opposed to recent stress or RA severity. These questions were examined within a larger study of the effects of manipulated emotional state (sadness, anger, or happiness, vs. a control condition) on inflammation among nine women with RA. Participants completed four separate study visits of four hours each (which varied only by emotion condition) during which the inflammatory response was acutely stressed via a pain threshold test. Blood was drawn via a catheter at baseline, 10, 60, and 100 minute post pain and C5a and CRP were assayed from frozen stored blood samples using commercially available kits. Results suggest that C5a is detectable in the study’s population of interest and may be more indicative of pain responses than CRP in RA. Of greatest significance in predicting C5a were acute recent pain measures. In addition, the more long term indicator of pain interference was marginally correlated with later C5a time points and predicted 100 minute C5a over and above baseline values. Further investigation on the value of C5a as a predictor of pain responses in RA is imperative to shed light on triggers of pain severity and new methods of intervention.