Social Experiences and Demographic Factors in the Regulation of Immune Cells

Summary

Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases are a health burden for approximately seven percent of the population of Western nations. Preliminary data suggest variations in ethnic identity and/or geography influence discrimination experiences and inflammatory response trends. This study investigates how geography, ethnicity, and laboratory manipulation of discrimination experiences affect immune cell function and genomic regulation. Flow cytometry and immune cell stimulation will test monocytes collected from peripheral blood for functional effects. Next-generation transcriptomics and epigenomics will assess genomic and epigenetic mechanisms. The hypothesis is that geography, self-identified race, and ethnicity, interacting with laboratory discrimination conditions during the virtual ballgame Cyberball™, significantly affect immune cell function through genomic and epigenetic mechanisms, with perceived discrimination as a moderating factor on the immune outcomes. The transdisciplinary nature of the proposed study aims to provide valuable insights into differential susceptibility to immune-mediated inflammatory diseases across diverse populations. Uncovering these insights will better inform population-relevant interventions for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

Conditions

• Perceived Discrimination
• RNA
• Inflammatory Response

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cyberball

Cyberball™ is a virtual social exclusion game that simulates social interactions and acute discrimination experiences in a controlled laboratory setting. The game involves passing a virtual ball between players represented by images. In this study, only the participant is a real player, while the other "players" are pre-programmed virtual avatars controlled by the experimenter using Cyberball software. The ethnicity of these virtual players can be manipulated by changing the stock photos used to represent them. Participants in the Race-Based Social Exclusion condition play Cyberball with virtual players who appear to be of a different ethnicity from the participant. In the Non-Race-Based Social Exclusion, the participant plays with virtual players who do not have any obvious ethnic differences from the participant, and social inclusion is a washout condition where the participant receives the ball from the virtual players, regardless of the ethnicity of the avatars.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Texas Christian University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Maryland, Baltimore

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Baltimore

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Morgan State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ingrid K Tulloch, PhD · Morgan State University

• Sarah E Hill, PhD · Texas Christian University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-02-27

Primary Completion

2028-06-03

Completion

2028-06-03

Countries

• United States

Study Locations