Academic examination stress was associated with increased mitogen-stimulated lymphocyte proliferation. It may be assumed that stimulation of immune system by acute stress may provide survival benefits through an increased readiness for traumas and wounds. Thus, short-term stressors may boost resilience and improve performance in dealing with frequently occurring LY2109761 stressful experiences and lead to growth, adaptation and beneficial learning that promote stress resistance and good health. Though it has been long recognized that increased oxidative damage is a factor in pathophysiology of stress-induced lesions and depression, recent findings add a twist to the established picture suggesting that acutely stressful events may not always result in aggravated oxidative injury. A study by Aschbacher et al. demonstrated that enhancement or weakening of organism’s resilience to oxidative damage depends on the individual’s prior exposure to chronic psychological stress. Furthermore, increased levels of perceived stress were associated with alleviation of oxidative damage, but only among women with low levels of chronic perceived stress. Similarly, it has been found that an exposure to a moderate stressor boosts resilience to oxidative damage in postmenopausal women. Recent advances have shown that men and women exhibit marked differences in terms of disease symptoms, prognosis, psychological and social impact. Additionally, a substantial amount of data states that men and women differ in handling stressful situations and in manifestation and extent of adverse effects caused by stress. Our results show that they also differ in beneficial effects of stress response. In this study, we found that acute psychosocial stress enhances antioxidant activity and diminishes manifestations of oxidative damage in whole saliva of young people. We also report substantial differences between women and men in the stress response. Our research focuses on how antioxidant activity and oxidative damage in saliva is affected in a psychosocial stress paradigm in men and women. Numerous studies report differences between males and females in response to stress. Men and women handle stressful situations differently and exhibit differences in cortisol responses. Women differ from men in emotionally driven memory performance or feelings of sadness and anxiety following stress. The differences in stress reactivity may have implications for certain aspects of physiological reactions and overall health. In the present study, the highly stressful situation of academic examination induced a significant rise of state anxiety, with mean increase of 38%. Salivary alpha-amylase levels were measured to verify activation of sympathetically mediated responses to psychosocial stress. The principal function of salivary alpha-amylase is initial digestion of dietary homopolysaccharides in the oral cavity. The enzyme is synthesized and secreted by acinar cells of the major salivary glands, the process that is mainly regulated by the autonomic nervous system by beta-adrenergic receptors.