# Association Between Biochemical, Inflammatory, Oxidative Stress and DNA Methylation Biomarkers with Perceived Stress in Mexican Individuals

## TL;DR

This study explores how stress in Mexican adults is linked to biological markers like inflammation, oxidative stress, and DNA methylation, finding differences between men and women.

## Contribution

The study is the first to examine the combined association of biochemical, inflammatory, oxidative stress, and DNA methylation biomarkers with perceived stress in the Mexican population.

## Key findings

- Perceived stress correlated with sociodemographic factors like sleep quality, age, and income.
- Inflammatory marker IL-1β and oxidative stress marker 8-isoprostane showed sex-specific correlations with stress.
- Global DNA methylation levels correlated oppositely with stress in men and women.

## Abstract

Stress is increasingly recognized as a complex, multidimensional phenomenon shaped by interacting biological, psychological, and social factors, and it has been linked to numerous physical conditions. Several inflammatory and oxidative stress markers have been correlated with perceived stress. However, the combined association of biochemical variables, inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers, and DNA methylation with perceived stress has not yet been examined in the Mexican population. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine such an association in a sample of non-representative Mexican adult individuals. A total of 157 individuals were included, of whom 83 (53%) were women. Women showed higher values of stress than men. In the bivariate correlations, perceived stress correlated negatively with sleep quality, age, total cholesterol, monthly earnings and waist-to-hip ratio and positively with morbidity count, leucocytes and platelets. In the multivariable analyses, additional variables were associated with perceived stress, including a positive correlation with IL-1β in the total sample, a positive correlation with 8-isoprostane in the women’s sample, and a negative correlation with this molecule in the men’s sample. Similarly, perceived stress correlated positively with DNA global methylation in the men’s sample and negatively with this variable in the women’s sample. In conclusion, perceived stress showed correlations with many variables, including sociodemographic and behavioral ones, such as sex, age and sleep quality; biochemical variables, including serum lipids, platelets and leukocytes; and inflammation (IL-1β), oxidative stress (8-isoprostane) and DNA methylation (global DNA methylation) biomarkers, some of them showing opposite correlations in each sex.