Chronic psychosocial stress promotes systemic immune activation and the development of inflammatory Th cell responses

Variability in stress system regulatory control of inflammation: a critical factor mediating health effects of stress

“…In accordance with earlier rodent data [58], CSC induced GC resistance of splenocytes [57]. In a more recent study, however, the same authors showed that leukocytes harvested from lymph nodes remained GC responsive during chronic stress, with the exception of IL-4 production, which developed a relative GC resistance after 19 days of CSC [59].…”

Circulating cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells as potential predictors for antidepressant response in melancholic depression. Restoration of T regulatory cell populations after antidepressant therapy

“…Reductions in these Bsuppressor^cells are also thought to play an important role in the Bchronic inflammatory stateô f MDD patients (Miller 2010). Lastly, it is worthy to note that acute stress perturbs the catecholamine metabolism and affects the number of T reg cells (Freier et al 2010), pointing towards a role of stress in the here found decreased percentage of T reg cells in drug-free MDD (see also Schmidt et al 2010).…”

Contributions of the adaptive immune system to mood regulation: Mechanisms and pathways of neuroimmune interactions

“…Forty years later, studies have shown which specific lymphocyte subsets are affected (Pacheco-Lopez et al, 2009), and much more is known generally about stress effects on the immune system (Dhabhar, 2014). While many studies have demonstrated that acute stress and chronic stress differentially affect immunity (Dhabhar, 2009; Segerstrom and Miller, 2004), we will focus primarily on chronic stress because it is more strongly associated with depression (Phillips et al, 2015) and is known to suppress adaptive immunity—reducing lymphocyte proliferation and altering T cell subtype ratios and functionality (Bartolomucci, 2007; Dominguez-Gerpe and Rey-Mendez, 2001; Edgar et al, 2003; Frick et al, 2009a; Frick et al, 2009b; Schmidt et al, 2010; Silberman et al, 2004; Silberman et al, 2002). More recent studies showed that mice exposed to chronic mild stress had a decline in the Th1/Th2 ratio, extrapolated from relative changes in cytokine output, and a corresponding decline in cognitive performance on the Y-maze (Palumbo et al, 2012).…”