Adolescent social instability stress leads to immediate and lasting sex-specific changes in the neuroendocrine-immune-gut axis in rats

Adolescence Predatory Risk Alters Social Behaviors and Cognitive Ability and Central Oxytocin and Vasopressin Expression in Adult Brandt’s Voles

“…In the present study, we did not observe any alteration in basal HPA axis activity induced by adolescent CO exposure, which was observed in our previous work [62] and that of other groups [31, 34]. In rodent studies, the effect of adolescent stress on basal CORT levels in adulthood is inconsistent, either elevated [97, 98], reduced [30, 99], or unchanged [100, 101], depending on several factors, such as the type of stressor, the detection time, and the stage of adolescence during which the experience occurs. Previous reports indicate that homotypic stress usually leads to habituation in adults but not in adolescents [102, 103].…”

Consequences of pandemic-associated social restrictions: Role of social support and the oxytocin system

“…Moreover, in female adolescent rats social instability increased hippocampal NFkB1 expression, but attenuated its rise induced by an additional immune challenge. However, opposite effects were found on hippocampal IL-6 synthesis ( McCormick et al, 2020 ).…”

Immune signaling as a node of interaction between systems that sex-specifically develop during puberty and adolescence

“…Further assessment, however, revealed that increased symptoms of depression were associated with expression of glucocorticoid receptors and NF-κB that was independent of gender, implicating both immune and HPA axis changes in late adolescents experiencing depression ( Chiang et al, 2019b ). In rodents, while post-pubertal (P44) immune challenge via LPS exposure increased CORT levels in both males and female rats, this increase was higher in animals treated with LPS in adulthood ( McCormick et al, 2020 ). Further, stress in late adolescence has been shown to prime the neuroimmune response to adult LPS treatment in males only; however, this effect was not associated with HPA changes ( Pyter et al, 2013 ).…”

“…Recent work also points to an immune-microbiota relationship, where post-pubescent teenagers (14–18 years) with enriched oral microbiota had increased depressive- and anxiety-related symptomology that was moderated by circulating levels of C-reactive protein ( Simpson et al, 2020 ). Further, immune challenge via LPS exposure in rats was found to have a sex-dependent impact on the fecal and colon microbiome, with differences in microbiota families in late adolescence (P46) vs. adulthood ( McCormick et al, 2020 ). Immune signaling may, therefore, act as a key contributor to microbiome changes during late adolescence that has lasting behavioral impacts dependent on sex/gender.…”