2. Academic Validation
  3. Spleen contributes to restraint stress induced changes in blood leukocytes distribution

Spleen contributes to restraint stress induced changes in blood leukocytes distribution

  • Sci Rep. 2017 Jul 26;7(1):6501. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06956-9.
Wei Jiang 1 2 3 4,  Yu Li 1 2 3 4,  Jin Sun 1 2,  Liang Li 1 2 3 4,  Jiang-Wei Li 1 2 3 4,  Chen Zhang 1 2,  Chen Huang 1 2 5,  Jun Yang 1 2 6,  Guang-Yao Kong 7 8,  Zong-Fang Li 9 10 11 12
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Biodiagnosis and Biotherapy, The second affiliated hospital of Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
  • 2 Shaanxi Provincial Engineering Research Center of Biotherapy & Translational Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
  • 3 Shaanxi Provincial Clinical Research Center for Hepatic & Splenic Diseases, Xi'an, China.
  • 4 Department of General Surgery, The second affiliated hospital of Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
  • 5 Key Laboratory of Environment and Disease-Related Gene, Ministry of Education, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
  • 6 Department of Pathology, The second affiliated hospital of Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
  • 7 National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Biodiagnosis and Biotherapy, The second affiliated hospital of Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. konggy@xjtu.edu.cn.
  • 8 Shaanxi Provincial Engineering Research Center of Biotherapy & Translational Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. konggy@xjtu.edu.cn.
  • 9 National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Biodiagnosis and Biotherapy, The second affiliated hospital of Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. lzf2568@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
  • 10 Shaanxi Provincial Engineering Research Center of Biotherapy & Translational Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. lzf2568@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
  • 11 Shaanxi Provincial Clinical Research Center for Hepatic & Splenic Diseases, Xi'an, China. lzf2568@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
  • 12 Department of General Surgery, The second affiliated hospital of Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. lzf2568@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
PMID: 28747688 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-06956-9
Abstract

Psychological stress has great impacts on the immune system, particularly the leukocytes distribution. Although the impacts of acute stress on blood leukocytes distribution are well studied, however, it remains unclear how chronic stress affects leukocytes distribution in peripheral circulation. Furthermore, there is no report about the role of spleen in the blood leukocytes distribution induced by stress. Here we show that spleen contributes to the alteration of restraint stress induced blood leukocytes distribution. Our data confirmed that restraint stress induced anxiety-like behavior in mice. Furthermore, we found that restraint stress decreased the CD4/CD8 ratio and elevated the percentages of natural killer cells, monocytes and polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cell. We demonstrated that activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) contributes to restraint stress induced alteration of blood leukocyte distribution. Interestingly, we found that splenectomy could reverse the change of CD4/CD8 ratio induced by restraint stress. Together, our findings suggest that activation of HPA axis and SNS was responsible for the blood leukocyte subsets changes induced by restraint stress. Spleen, at least in part, contributed to the alteration in peripheral circulation induced by restraint stress.

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