Stress Applied During Primary Immunization Affects the Secondary Humoral Immune Response in the Rat: Involvement of Opioid Peptides

Abstract

The effect of unpredictable, inescapable and uncontrollable electric tail shocks (ES) on the humoral immune response to bovine serum albumin (BSA) was investigated in the rat. Contributions of the procedures that accompany shock delivery, such as witnessing the ES procedure (stress witnessing, SW) and exposure to the apparatus for shock delivery (apparatus control, AC) to the changes in specific immunity induced by ES were also tested. All procedures were applied during primary and/or secondary immunization. It was demonstrated that exposure to ES during primary immunization with BSA significantly suppressed specific anti-BSA antibody production after secondary and tertiary immunization with the same antigen. Exposure to the SW procedure during primary immunization with BSA enhanced the specific antibody level after secondary immunization, while exposure to the apparatus alone did not influence the development of either the primary or secondary humoral immune response to BSA. Both ES-induced suppression and SW-induced potentiation of the humoral immune response were partially inhibited by prior treatment with the opioid receptor antagonist naloxone. Additionally, treatments with the opioid peptides methionine- and leucine-enkephalin decreased anti-BSA antibody level, mimicking to some extent the effects of ES. It is suggested that ES and endogenous opioid peptides had long-term effects on humoral immunity through mechanisms involving immunologic memory.

Exposure to acute physical and psychological stress alters the response of rat macrophages to corticosterone, neuropeptide Y and beta-endorphin

“…We have previously shown that exposure to electric tail shock stress (ES) profoundly suppresses the humoral immune response in rats, whereas witnessing electric tail shock administration (SW) potentiates it (Stanojević et al 2003). It is suggested that alterations in the immune response observed after stress could be specifically attributed to stress-induced changes in macrophage functions as these cells are intimately involved in the development of the humoral and cellular immune responses (Fleshner et al 1995a;Kizaki et al 1996).…”

“Recreational” Drug Abuse Associated with Failure to Mount a Proper Antibody Response after a Generalised Orthopoxvirus Infection

“…Also psychogenic factors during immunization have been shown to affect the humoral immune response in stress induced animals suggesting involvement of endogenous opiate molecules [16] and stress induced IL-1beta production has been shown to have a major influence on the suppression of antibody production [17].…”

Stress conditioning in mice: Alterations in immunity and tumor growth

“…The humoral immune response reflects a wellcontrolled multistep homeostatic response to antigen challenge (Stanojevic et al 2003): The antibodies are responsible for neutralizing and clearing the antigen, and play a major role in the destruction of tumor cells. Studies of Id-vaccinated mice showed that anti-Id antibodies were involved in the destruction of B-cell lymphoma (Campbell et al 1988;George et al 1988).…”

“…It is of interest that Stanojevic et al (2003) demonstrated that direct exposure to an electric shock during primary immunization with BSA significantly suppressed specific anti-BSA antibody production, but shock-witnessing procedures enhanced the specific secondary humoral immune response. The shock-witnessing model involved placing the animals in the apparatus for electric shock delivery and exposing them to pheromones and vocalization from the stressed animals throughout the 5 days of testing (Stanojevic et al 2003).…”