Early Life Stress Alters Adult Inflammatory Responses in a Mouse Model for Depression
- 1. Department of Biology, Morgan State University, USA
Abstract
Increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and hypothalamic pituitary axis
(HPA) activity are strongly associated with depression. Childhood stress and trauma
predispose individuals for increased inflammatory tone and major depression in
later life, suggesting that early life reprogramming of the stress/immune axis may
be involved in the pathogenesis of depression. In this study, we are using a short
duration neonatal maternal separation stress (MS) paradigm in mice to test if early
life stress can impact plasma and brain inflammatory tone into adulthood. We use
ELISA assays to investigate levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1beta, IL-2, IL-6
and TNF-alpha, in both plasma and brain tissue of mice exposed to MS (STR), their
unseparated littermates (LMC) and unhandled age matched controls (AMC). Cytokine
levels are assessed in male and female adult mice with and without a bacterial
lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced immune challenge. We present evidence that stress
exposure, during the first week of life, predisposes both male and female mice for
increased inflammatory cytokine secretion, peripherally and in brain tissue, upon adult
exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS).