Maternal social stress during pregnancy alters immune function and immune cell numbers in adult male Long–Evans rat offspring during stressful life-events

Abstract The impact of social confrontations on distribution and function of blood immune cells in adult male rat offspring from stressed and non-stressed pregnancies was studied. Repeated 2 h resident–intruder confrontations were performed on ten consecutive days using a protective cage. Prenatally...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of neuroimmunology Vol. 185; no. 1; pp. 95 - 102
Main Authors:	Götz, Alexander A, Wittlinger, Sabrina, Stefanski, Volker
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01-04-2007
Subjects:	Allergy and Immunology Animals Blood Cell Count Body Weight Corticosterone Corticosterone - blood Female Immune cells Leukocytes - cytology Leukocytes - immunology Lymphocyte Activation - immunology Male Neurology Offspring Pregnancy Prenatal Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - blood Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - immunology Psychosocial stress Rats Rats, Long-Evans Social Environment Stress, Psychological - blood Stress, Psychological - immunology Prenatal Pregnancy Offspring Immune cells Corticosterone Psychosocial stress
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Summary:	Abstract The impact of social confrontations on distribution and function of blood immune cells in adult male rat offspring from stressed and non-stressed pregnancies was studied. Repeated 2 h resident–intruder confrontations were performed on ten consecutive days using a protective cage. Prenatally stressed intruder males (PSI) had a generally lower number of neutrophiles, monocytes, T and NK cells and reduced lymphocyte proliferation in whole blood cultures than prenatally non-stressed control intruders (PCI). Differences also existed in the temporal dynamics of immunological changes. On confrontation day 1, stress-induced reductions in lymphocyte and monocyte numbers but increased granulocyte counts were observed in both groups. However, only PCI showed a partial recovery of T cell and monocyte numbers on confrontation day 10 and a full restoration in all immune cell numbers 5 days post-confrontation. Thus, the immunological response to a psychosocial stressor in adult rats can be modified by the mothers’ exposure to stress during pregnancy.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:	0165-5728 1872-8421
DOI:	10.1016/j.jneuroim.2007.01.019