Chronic restraint stress impairs T-cell immunity and promotes tumor progression in mice

Abstract

Long-term exposure to stressful situations can affect the immune system. The T-cell response is an important component of anti-tumoral immunity. Hence, impairment of the immune function induced by a chronic stressor has been postulated to alter the immunosurveillance of tumors, thus leading to a worse neoplastic prognosis. Here, we show that chronic restraint stress affects T-cell mediated immunity in mice. This was evidenced by a decrease of mitogen-induced T-cell proliferation, a reduction in CD4(+)T lymphocyte number and a decrease of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) production in stressed mice. Additionally, mice subjected to chronic restraint stress displayed an enhancement of tumor growth in a syngeneic lymphoma model, i.e. an increase of tumor proliferation and a reduction of animal survival. Finally, stressed mice had a reduced specific cytotoxic response against these tumor cells. These results suggest that chronic exposure to stress promotes cancer establishment and subsequent progression, probably by depressing T-cell mediated immunity. The T-cell immunity impairment as well as the tumor progression enhancement emphasize the importance of the therapeutic management of stress to improve the prognosis of cancer patients.

Resilience of the Immune System in Healthy Young Students to 30-Hour Sleep Deprivation with Psychological Stress

“…Some investigators suggested a dichotomy between the impact of acute and chronic stress, namely that chronic stress suppresses immunity and reduces resistance to diseases, while acute stress enhances immunity and disease resistance [25,26]. However, several acute stressors were actually shown to suppress various immune indices, including peripheral levels of NK activity and Th1 cytokine levels [27,28,29,30].…”

Dys-psychological stress effect on expressions of P53 and NFκBp65 in human ovarian carcinoma In Vivo

“…Stress is a known risk factor for human diseases, such as autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and cancer [8,9] . Epidemiologic and experimental animal studies have shown that stress may alter tumor growth [10][11][12][13] .…”

Effects of Social Stress on Immunomodulation and Tumor Development

“…This effect on proinflammatory interleukins is specific to the type of brain structure studied and the type of stress applied (Plata-Salaman et al, 2000). As regards the adaptive immune response, it has been shown, for example, that chronic stress alters the balance of Th1 and Th2 lymphocytes (Frick et al, 2009). Social stress may also trigger a decrease in the proliferative capacity of splenic T lymphocytes and the proliferative capacity of NK cells (Beitia et al, 2005;Stefanski & Ben-Eliyahu, 1996).…”