The Effect of Various Contexts of Stress on the Mouse Spleen Lymphocytes and Macrophage Co‐stimulatory Activity

Abstract

Mice stressed daily by brief cold water immersions for 1, 8 or 14 days showed changes in immune system function which were dependent on the number of mice per cage, frequency of stress exposures and total number of stress exposures. Changed percentages of spleen B and CD4, but not of CD8 cells were determined when the mice were stressed either once or twice daily. With CD4 cells, increased percentages were seen after stress once daily but a decreased percentage was seen after stress twice daily. Furthermore, the Concanavalin A-stimulated spleen cell mitogenesis was decreased after 1 day of stress in mice stressed once daily as opposed to after 8 and 14 days of stress in mice stressed twice daily. After 14 days of stress, the lipopolysaccharide stimulated mitogenesis was increased if the mice were stressed once daily but decreased if the mice were stressed twice daily. With two mice per cage, we observed a decreased spleen cell mitogenesis after 14 days of stress. With four mice per cage, the spleen cell mitogenesis was decreased after 8 and 14 days of stress. If spleen cell populations from mice stressed twice daily for 8 days were depleted of macrophages and CD4 or CD8 cells, the effect of stress on the mitogenesis was removed from the CD8 cells. Spleen cells of mice stressed for 14 days showed a decreased mitogenesis when depleted of adherent cells and reconstituted with adherent cells from control mice. Furthermore, the adherent cells from these mice had decreased ability to support mitogenesis of adherent cell-depleted spleen cells from control mice as well as a decreased IL-1 production.

Auditory Stress Induces Changes in Membrane Functions of Mouse Peritoneal Macrophages

“…In addition, these changes are modified depending on the duration of stress. Our protocol of stress supports the hypothesis that stress modifies the macrophage activity of rodents [6,[9][10][11]. These modifications, together with the normal levels of corticosterone observed, indicate that other pathways and/or other levels of the CRF-induced cascade are operational in inducing immune alterations after stress.…”

“…Noise stimulation has been shown to induce physiological stress responses in rats including changes in plasma hormone levels [5]. Several studies have investigated the effects of stressful events on the lymphocyte response [6][7][8], but few reports have considered the mononuclear phagocyte system which is the first barrier of defence against a wide range of micro-organisms and tumour cells [9][10][11]. It is well-known that stress disturbs natural immunity and, in particular, natural killer cells [12,13].…”

Stressor-lnduced Alterations of Immune Function: Mechanisms and Issues

“…This has been demonstrated for several quantitative and qualitative aspects of immune func tion, including nonspecific innate immune parameters [15][16][17][18][19][20][21], and specific T and B lymphocyte functions, including those against infectious and tumor antigens [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], How ever, there is a lack of consensus as to which types of stres sors are likely to promote specific types of alterations in a particular parameter of immune function. For example, whereas some researchers have found stressor-induced sup pression of antibody production in rats or mice [34][35][36], others find an enhancement in antibody formation [37,38].…”

The Anti-stress Effects of Sarcandra glabra Extract on Restraint-Evoked Immunocompromise

“…Restraint is a common stress-causing factor that exerts great impacts on immunological system. 8) It was reported that restraint stress in mice changed the number of lymphocyte cells, altered antibodies production, and suppressed cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) and T cells. [9][10][11][12] Fukui demonstrated that restraint stress-induced change in lymphocyte cell number closely correlated with the altered antibody and cytokine levels.…”