“…These stress-induced effects are not inconsequential; high stress reactivity has been linked to increased susceptibility to infection and immune dysfunction (Black, 2002;Padgett and Glaser, 2003;Glaser and Kiecolt-Glaser, 1998;Kiecolt-Glaser et al, 2002;Liu et al, 2002;Rohleder et al, 2001;Cohen and Hamrick, 2003). Some of these effects can be modeled on the laboratory, and as we and others have shown, social defeat activates the core stress responses and can have deleterious immunological effects on defeated mice (Devoino et al, 2003;Merlot et al, 2003;Padgett et al, 1998;Sheridan et al, 2000), including increased proinflammatory cytokine production, splenomegaly, trafficking of lymphocytes to the spleen, and insensitivity to the antiproliferative effects of glucocorticoids in LPS-stimulated splenocytes (Avitsur et al, 2003;Bailey et al, 2006;Engler et al, 2005;Stark et al, 2001). Although slight differences occurred between C57BL/6 mice and CD-1 mice, the present data indicate that the development of anxiety-like behavior can be added to the list of consequences mediated by social disruption.…”