Neonatal experience interacts with adult social stress to alter acute and chronic Theiler’s virus infection

Broken or maladaptive? Altered trajectories in neuroinflammation and behavior after early life adversity

“…Early life experiences—both positive and negative—can have profound effects on brain development in mammals. Rearing environments that are enriched with good parental care, suitable protection, and engaging sensory stimulation offer resilience to insults later in life such as psychological stressors ( Francis et al, 2002 ) or even pathological infection ( Johnson et al, 2014 ). In contrast, early life adversity (ELA) such as parental deprivation, neglect, abuse, or exposure to threats has been repeatedly shown to yield a myriad of deviations in brain circuitry, stress-responsivity, cognitive function, and general health ( Anda et al, 2008 , Dube et al, 2009 , Brown et al, 2010 ).…”

Social Stress Alters the Severity of an Animal Model of Multiple Sclerosis

“…Previous research by other investigators had suggested that exposure to brief maternal separation leads to a hypoactive HPA-axis, with long-term protective effects (for a review, see Meaney, 2001). In contrast, we found that brief maternal separation may not be protective when paired with later social stress (Johnson et al, 2004b(Johnson et al, , 2005c.…”

“…This hypothesis was tested by determining whether intracranial administration of a neutralizing antibody to IL-6 could reverse the adverse effects of SDR during acute TMEV infection (Johnson et al, 2005a(Johnson et al, , 2006b. Before each SDR session, mice in the PRE-SDR or no-stress groups received either an intracranial injection of a neutralizing antibody to IL-6 or the vehicle.…”

Social disruption alters pain and cognition in an animal model of multiple sclerosis

“…In the present model, the presumed mechanism involves a social stress-induced increase in central and peripheral IL-6 response to TMEV (Meagher et al, 2007), which primes the CNS to an enhanced innate immune response (Vichaya et al, 2011) and disrupts the adaptive CNS immune response (Young et al, 2013). The resultant neuroinflammation can exacerbate behavioral impairments in both the acute and chronic phases of disease (Johnson et al, 2014, Johnson et al, 2006, Johnson et al, 2004). While this process may underlie our SDR-related exacerbations in SJL mice, including enhanced pain behavior and memory consolidation, it should be noted that these effects may be differentially expressed in mouse strains as many strains differ in their sensitivity to stress (Anisman et al, 2001, Belzung et al, 2001, Griebel et al, 2000).…”