title: Strain variation in immune response and behavior following the death of cage cohorts.
abstract: Strain differences in both immune function and behavior were observed following exposure of mice to the death of cage-cohorts. AKR/J, BALB/cN, and C3H/HeJ mice were exposed to a dead cohort for two hours at 48 hour intervals for 30 days. During this two hour period, AKR/J mice displayed intense fighting and mounting behavior. In addition, these mice attacked, cannibalized, and buried carcasses. Neither C3H/HeJ nor BALB/cN mice exhibited the complete repertoire of behaviors directed at either carcasses or cage-cohorts observed in AKR/J mice. After 15 exposures to the death of cage-cohorts, allogeneic cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response was suppressed in AKR/J mice, but was enhanced or unchanged in C3H/HeJ and BALB/cN mice, respectively. Other immune parameters including natural killer (NK) cell activity, and lipopolysaccharide-stimulated B cell proliferation were unchanged in AKR/J mice but increased in BALB/cN mice exposed to the death of cage-cohorts for thirty days. These results suggest: 1) that both suppression of the CTL response and behaviors indicative of defensive burying in AKR/J mice may specifically be due to the loss of cage-cohorts, since they were not observed following exposure of these mice to the death of contraspecific animals; and 2) that both the behavioral repertoire and immune responses following exposure to the death of cage-cohorts may be strain dependent. This strain dependence may reflect differences in the ability to cope with the intermittent presentation of a stressor, and may explain, at least in part, variability in stress-induced changes in immune functions.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuroscience, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sei
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Skolnick
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Arora
mesh_terms: D000378:Agonistic Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic / Q000276:immunology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D007108:Immune Tolerance / Q000276:immunology; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D012931:Social Environment; D013045:Species Specificity; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*