title: Stress-induced susceptibility to bacterial infection during cutaneous wound healing.
abstract: Psychological stress delays wound healing and decreases immune/inflammatory responses required for bacterial clearance. To determine if stress increases the susceptibility to wound infection, female SKH-1 mice were subjected to restraint stress (RST) beginning 3 days prior to the placement of cutaneous wounds. Viable bacteria were quantified from harvested wounds. RST delayed healing by 30% and caused a 2- to 5-log increase in opportunistic bacteria (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus) when compared to wounds from control animals (p <.05). By day 7, 85.4% of the wounds from RST mice had bacterial counts predictive of infection compared to 27.4% from control mice (p <.001). To assess the role of RST-induced glucocorticoids in bacterial clearance, mice were treated with the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU486. RU486 reduced opportunistic bacteria by nearly 1 log in wounds from RST mice (p <.05). Thus, stress impairs bacterial clearance during wound healing, resulting in a significant increase in the incidence of opportunistic infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Isolde-Gina
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Rojas
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Padgett
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Sheridan
authors.forename: Phillip T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Marucha
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000378:metabolism; D006727:Hormone Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D051379:Mice; D015735:Mifepristone / Q000494:pharmacology; D009894:Opportunistic Infections / Q000276:immunology; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D013291:Streptococcus / Q000276:immunology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids; D006727:Hormone Antagonists; D015735:Mifepristone