International Journal of Research in Environmental Science Volume 4, Issue 1, 2018, PP 56-61 ISSN No. (Online) 2454-9444 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2454-9444.0401007 www.arcjournals.org International Journal of Research in Environmental Science (IJRES) Page | 56 Assessment of Salivary Biomarkers on Work- Related Stress Nagat Amer 1 , Zeinab Monir 2 , Khadiga S Ibrahim 1 , Mona M Taha 1 , Eman M Shahy 1 , Mai S. Saleh 1 1 Environmental and Occupational Medicine Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza 2 Child Healthy Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza 1. INTRODUCTION Occupational stress can be defined as a negative physiological and psychological response to work- related conditions [1]. It can adversely affect physical health [2]. Individuals suffering from chronic stress could be subjected to emotional vulnerability and tendencies to experience psychosomatic symptoms [3]. According to Taravati and Kaklar [4], environmental stressors- including job stress- could even aggravate infectious diseases. Moreover, job satisfaction is greatly affected by prevalence of work stress[5] with an obvious impact on the rate of turn-over [6]. Biomarkers as diagnostic tools are believed to be objective and indicative for actual clinical outcomes of stress [7]. On biological bases experience of stressful stimuli precipitates a complex and counterbalancing set of hormonal responses in the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis [8]. Chronic stimulation of these responses causes imbalances in their functioning that is mainly characterized by cortisol secretion. Cortisol is known to have numerous physiological effects, including glucose metabolism and immune response. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol may result in hypertension, abdominal obesity, and memory impairment, while low levels of cortisol may be associated with excessive immune responses [9]. Saliva and the biomolecules found in saliva often play important immune defense roles and can be used for non invasive screening of many systemic diseases. Salivary cortisol is a traditional marker of stress that monitors the HPA axis function [10]. Similarly, Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is another biomarker that changes in response to psychosocial stress [11]. Reductions in IgA are often indicative of a reduction in functioning of the immune system [12]. As for C-reactive protein (CRP) which is one of the best characterized systemic inflammatory biomarkers, an increase in the level of perceived stress is reported to be independently associated with a higher level of CRP [13]. A prominent increase in CRP serum level after a stressful task which showed to be more evident in persons reporting higher effort-reward imbalance at the work place [14]. Stress related to social interactions is also correlated with the level of CRP even among healthy adolescents [15]. As for the relationship between salivary and serum CRP considerable amount of recent studies reported a moderate to strong association between CRP measured in saliva and that measured in serum [16-17]. Abstract: Work-related stress may adversely affect physical and psychological health. The aim of this study was to measure biomarkers of stress; cortisol, immunoglobulin A (IgA) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in saliva, among some Egyptian workers and to investigate stress associated work-related and socio- demographic factors. The study included 66 Egyptian workers (50 females and 16 males) with mean age of 38 years. Biomarkers were determined using ELISA technique and a self-reported questionnaire was designed to collect data about variables under study. Results showed significant negative correlation between age and CRP levels. CRP also showed to be significantly higher among the non-married subjects. Salivary biomarkers of stress succeeded to show significant differences among study variables. Researchers showed significantly lower cortisol level than employees group that may suggest acute state of stress. Keywords: Occupational stress; Salivary Cortisol; IgA; CRP; Stress biomarkers *Corresponding Author: Mai S. Saleh, Environmental and Occupational Medicine Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza