Impact of Sensory Contact Model on Psychosocial Stress and Correlation with Immunological Changes

Repeated single exposures to social stressors induce robust shifts of cardiac sympathovagal balance toward sympathetic dominance both during and after each agonistic interaction. However, little evidence is available regarding possible persistent pathophysiological changes due to chronic social challenge. In this study, male CD-1 mice ( n = 14) were implanted with a radiotelemetry system for electrocardiographic recordings. We assessed the effects of chronic psychosocial stress (15-day sensory contact with a dominant animal and daily 5-min defeat episodes) on 1) sympathovagal responsiveness to each defeat episode, as measured via time-domain indexes of heart rate variability (R-R interval, standard deviation of R-R interval, and root mean square of successive R-R interval differences), 2) circadian rhythmicity of heart rate across the chronic challenge (night phase, day phase, and rhythm amplitude values), and 3) amount of myocardial structural damage (volume fraction, density, and extension of fibrosis). This study indicated that there was habituation of acute cardiac autonomic responsiveness, i.e., the shift of sympathovagal balance toward sympathetic dominance was significantly reduced across repeated defeat episodes. Moreover, animals exhibited significant changes in heart rate rhythmicity, i.e., increments in day and night values and reductions in the rhythm amplitude, but these were limited to the first 5 days of chronic psychosocial stress. The volume fraction of fibrosis was sixfold larger than in control animals, because of the appearance of many microscopic scarrings. In summary, although mice appeared to adapt to chronic psychosocial stress in terms of acute cardiovascular responsiveness and heart rate rhythmicity, structural alterations occurred at the myocardial level.

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AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR CORRECTION BY THE TRANSPLANTATION OF IN VITRO MODULATED IMMUNE CELLS

Medical Immunology (Russia) ◽

10.15789/1563-0625-abc-2263 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 693-698

Author(s):

E. V. Markova ◽

E. V. Serenko ◽

M. A. Knyazheva

Keyword(s):

Aggressive Behavior ◽

Immune Cells ◽

Depressive Disorders ◽

Brain Structures ◽

Psychoactive Substances ◽

Pathogenetic Mechanisms ◽

Sensory Contact ◽

Sensory Contact Model ◽

Mutual Regulation

Aggression is a serious biomedical problem associated with a high percentage of patients and a lack of selective corrective agents. The most frequent increase in aggressiveness occurs in patients with depressive disorders, schizophrenia, reactive psychoses and adjustment disorders, which are known to be characterized by immunological dysfunction. Antipsychotics are widely used in the correction of psychomotor agitation; the antipsychotic effect of these drugs is manifested in the achievement of a sedative effect. However, like other psychoactive substances, they have a number of side effects that limit their long-term use and determines the need to search for new approaches to the correction of affective disorders. Experimental modeling of aggression is one of the main approaches for studying its pathogenetic mechanisms and searching for new effective therapeutic agents for the treatment. The study of the aggression pathogenetic mechanisms and the search for approaches to therapy within the framework of neuroimmune interaction is currently extremely promising. Currently, there is a large number of clinical and experimental data indicating interrelated changes in the functional activity of the nervous and immune systems during aggression. The leading links in the pathogenetic mechanism of aggression is the violation of the production and mutual regulation of cytokines, neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, growth factors, hormones, the effects of which are mediated by the cellular elements of the immune system. Given the immune cells essential role in the pathogenesis of aggression and the psychoactive substances unidirectional effect on the immune and nervous cells, make it possible to consider immune cells as model objects for influencing the intersystem functional relationship in order to edit the aggressive phenotype. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of in vitro neuroleptic-modulated immune cells transplantation on behavioral phenotype and brain cytokines in aggressive syngeneic recipients. Aggressive behavior was formed in active male mice (CBA × C57Bl/6) F1 as a result of the experience of 20- fold victories in inter-male confrontations (distant sensory contact model). Aggressive mice splenocytes were treated in vitro with chlorpromazine and intravenously injected to syngeneic aggressive recipients. It has been demonstrated that modulated in vitro by chlorpromazine splenocytes of aggressive mice after transplantation edit the syngeneic aggressive recipient’s behavior against the background of a decrease in cytokines IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IFNγ and an increase in IL-4 in pathogenetically significant for aggression brain structures. The mechanisms of the aggressive behavior correcting effect of modulated immune cells are discussed.

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