3A and C). In contrast to females,

male mice exhibited a more severe form of EAE than nonstressed females (Fig. 3C), which was associated with about 17% mortality rate and did not, however, exacerbate under CVS conditions (Fig. 3B and C). The induction and progression of EAE were associated with an increase in CORT levels in both stressed and nonstressed mice (Fig. 3D). Throughout the experiment, CORT levels were persistently higher in female compared with male mice (Fig. 3D). Compared to nonstressed mice, stressed females but not stressed males, showed a lower CORT response to MOG35-55 immunization at the day of EAE onset (Fig. 3D). This suggests that an impaired CORT response may have contributed to the exacerbation of EAE in stressed female mice. We thus hereon focus on the mechanism whereby Selleck GS-1101 CVS increases

disease severity in female mice. To directly determine the role of CORT in stress-induced selleck products EAE exacerbation, female mice were injected daily with the glucocorticoid antagonist mifepristone 2 hours prior to stress induction (Fig. 4). Following the stress exposure period, mice were injected with MOG35-55 to induce EAE. Nonstressed and stressed mice were used as controls. As shown in Figure 4A, compared with nonstressed controls, disease incidence rate was significantly increased in stressed mice whereas no difference was observed in stressed mice administered with mifepristone. Notably, ANOVA test revealed a significant effect for treatment (F (2,38) = 3.0132, p < 0.05) and for time until (F (12,456) = 30.9, p < 0.0001); Fisher post-hoc analysis confirmed that EAE severity did not exacerbate in stressed

mice injected with mifepristone compared to nonstressed control mice (Fig. 4B), and was partially ameliorated compared to stressed control mice (decreased clinical score, days 11–13 post MOG35-55 immunization; p < 0.05; Fig. 4B). The increased EAE susceptibility and severity observed in stressed female mice could have been mediated by CORT-induced alterations in certain innate and adaptive cell subsets. To examine whether the effector functions of lymphocytes were affected following CVS in female mice, cytokine production was measured following anti-CD3 stimulation of splenocytes derived from stressed and nonstressed female mice. As shown in Table 2, no differences were found between stressed and nonstressed mice in the levels of pro- and antiinflammatory cytokines or in the levels of the chemoattractant MCP-1, suggesting that CVS did not intrinsically affect T-cell function. Thus, and given that stress increased CORT levels for a long period of time (Fig. 2), we also tested whether stress-induced elevation in CORT levels may have desensitized the lymphocytes to the immunosuppressive effects of CORT.