Chronic varied stress modulates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in Wistar rats

CORREA SG; RODRIGUEZ-GALÁN MC; RIVERO VE; RIERA CM

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 1998 vol. 12 p. 134 - 134

tress disturbs homeostasis by altering the equilibrium of various hormones whichhave a significant impact on immune responses. Few studies have examined theinfluence of stressors on autoimmune disease in animal models. In our work, westudied the effects of long-term exposure (14 days) to chronic varied stress(CVS) in a model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in Wistarrats. We studied whether the exposure to CVS before or after the immune challengewould correlate with differences in the clinical course of the disease. We alsoexamined whether the CVS would modulate the magnitude of the cellular or thehumoral immune response. We observed opposite effects on the clinical signs inanimals stressed before or after the immune challenge. The clinical signs of the disease were attenuated in animals stressed before but not after the immunechallenge. Relationships were found in the modulation of the clinical severi