Psychological stress is related to the onset of a spectrum of diseases (Cohen, Janicki-Deverts, & Miller, 2007), but the underlying pathways linking stress with disease are not fully understood. Recently there has been increasing interest in exploring low-grade peripheral inflammation as a potential pathway, especially considering that inflammation is reliably induced by psychological stress and directly affects various organ systems in the body (Rohleder, 2014). Previous studies showed that peripheral inflammation contributes to increased risk of several physiological as well as psychological diseases, including myocardial infarction (Ridker, Rifai, Stampfer, & Hennekens, 2000), diabetes (Wellen & Hotamisligil, 2005), and depression (Dantzer, O'Connor, Freund, Johnson, & Kelley, 2008), among others. However, the details of this pathway, particularly regarding the regulation of stress-induced inflammation, are unclear.
2.1 Stress Effects on Inflammation
Stress responses of inflammatory molecules are influenced by…