Early life stress aggravates disease pathogenesis in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis: Support for a two-hit hypothesis of multiple sclerosis etiology

Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Risk of Multiple Sclerosis Development: A Review of Potential Mechanisms

“…Evidence of an association between ACEs and MS susceptibility is supported by findings from experimental animal models of MS documenting that early-life stressors influence the susceptibility and severity of MS-like disease in exposed mice [20,22,23]. The combined evidence from experimental and epidemiological studies suggests that childhood adverse events contribute to a subsequent increased risk of MS.…”

“…Another study used shipment of neonatal laboratory mice as an early-life stressor and found that exposed mice had increased risk of EAE after immunization. They also suffered more severe clinical symptoms and had less recovery than unexposed mice [22]. The researchers found higher circulating levels of stress hormones in adult EAE mice exposed to early-life stress compared to unexposed EAE mice with the same immunization.…”

“…Both epidemiological and experimental studies have found an association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and MS [19][20][21][22][23]. ACEs represent potentially traumatic events, such as abuse or neglect, witnessing violence, or growing up in a household with drug use, mental health problems, or instability due to parental separation, death, or incarceration.…”