The effect of chronic emotional and physical stress on the neuroendocrine and immune systems

Abstract

The aim of the presented study was to characterize the developed model of chronic stress. Most of the currently existing models of chronic stress are long, laborious, hard to employ, and also difficult to reproduce, which leads to restrictions in their use. Daily swimming in cold water for 10 days model was proposed as a model of chronic stress. The described influence led to a significant involution of the thymus, an increase in the expression of the interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) genes in the thymus, and its decrease in the hypothalamus, a change in behavioral reactions, as well as a multiple increase in the blood concentration of corticosterone in the experimental animals. The data suggest that repeated swimming in cold water in experimental animals causes changes in the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system, the immune system, and also demonstrate the possibility of using the presented model as a model of chronic stress.

Keywords

chronic stress / thymus involution / corticosterone / cytokines / neuroimmune interactions

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RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Yankelevich I.A., Filatenkova T.A., Shustov M.V.