EFFECT OF PRENATAL STRESS ON INMUNE RESPONSE AFTER ACUTE AND CHRONIC STRESS EXPOSURE.

PASCUAN CECILIA GABRIELA; WALD MIRIAM RUTH; PALUMBO MARÍA LAURA; GENARO ANA MARÍA

Barcelona

Congreso; 10th International Congress of Neuroimmunology; 2010

International Society of Neuroimmunomodulation

Prenatal Stress (PS) has been associated with changes in immune response but the mechanism involved has not been fully elucidated. The aim of this work was investigate alterations in neuroimmune interaction in adults animals subjected to PS. For this purpose, pregnant mice were individually restrained 2 hour a day, since gestational day 14, until delivery. Stressed offspring mice were tested at 2-months of age together with control matched mice. A group of animals were submitted to acute or chronic stress. Results shown that PS did not induce significant changes either in proliferative response in vitro or in antibody levels after immunization in vivo, but lead to a Th2/Th1 imbalance. On the other hand were not observed changes in corticosterone and catecholamines levels. However, these animals had a lower immune response respect to control mice when were submitted to acute and chronic stress. Moreover, PS animals respond to acute stress with lower levels of corticosterone. But, not significant changes were observed under chronic stress. On the other hand, PS animals respond to both acute and chronic stress with similar changes of catecholamines levels than control animals.  In addition an increased sensitivity of inhibitory effect of corticosterone was found in lymphocytes from PS animals. These results indicate that PS induce a disruption in hyphotalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) - immune interaction.