A transcriptional profile favoring pro-inflammatory monocytes and

A transcriptional profile favoring pro-inflammatory monocytes and β-adrenergic signaling was also identified in human subjects of low socioeconomic

status, a form of chronic social stress. Further, Heidt et al. (2014) found that chronic variable stress increases numbers of monocytes and neutrophils in mouse blood and bone marrow due to proliferation of leukocyte progenitors. Stress-enhanced hematopoietic activity was accompanied by increased bone marrow noradrenaline levels and decreased expression of CXCL12, a negative regulator of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) proliferation and migration that is in turn regulated by the β3-adrenergic receptor. Treatment of stressed mice Selleckchem BGB324 with a β3-adrenergic receptor antagonist increased CXCL12 expression, reduced HSPC proliferation and attenuated the stress-induced increase in circulating neutrophils and Ly6chigh monocytes. Together, these studies provide selleck compelling evidence in both humans and mice linking stress vulnerability to sympathetic nervous system mediated leukocytosis. Potentially informative future studies include an investigation of leukocyte population shifts and transcriptional

profiles in blood and bone marrow of stress resilient subjects. Many of the peripheral findings we’ve discussed focus primarily on stress susceptible animals and suggest immune mechanisms of passive resilience—resilient why and control animals lack peripheral markers that are present and detrimental in susceptible animals. However, as research in the field shifts to focus more on pre-existing individual differences in inflammation as a proxy for vulnerability and resilience to depression and anxiety, we anticipate elucidation of active immune mechanisms of resilience, an exciting prospect due to the relative feasibility of therapeutically targeting peripheral systems with monoclonal antibodies, thus reducing off-target effects in the central nervous system. Peripheral cytokine signals reach the central nervous system via two main pathways—stimulation

of the vagal nerves and brainstem nuclei (the neural pathway) and crossing of the blood–brain barrier (the humoral pathway, see Fig. 1) (Dantzer et al., 2008, Wohleb et al., 2013, Pavlov and Tracey, 2012 and Quan, 2008). Centrally derived cytokine signals are produced by microglia, resident brain macrophages. Within the brain, inflammatory signals can influence behavior through mechanisms including activation of the HPA axis and glucocorticoid-induced neuronal atrophy (Iwata et al., 2013) as well as excitatory synaptic plasticity (see Fig. 2) (Christoffel et al., 2011a and Boersma et al., 2011). Numerous studies investigating central stress-induced inflammatory processes have revealed a prominent role for IL-1β. Iwata et al.

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