Suppression of host resistance to Listeria monocytogenes by acute cold/restraint stress: lack of direct IL-6 involvement

L Cao, DA Lawrence - Journal of neuroimmunology, 2002 - Elsevier
We conducted kinetic studies to evaluate the effects of acute cold/restraint stress (ACRS) on
both primary and secondary host resistance to Listeria monocytogenes (LM). The
involvement of IL-6 also was investigated using IL-6 knockout (KO) mice on the BALB/c
background. ACRS dramatically increased the serum corticosterone levels, indicating that
ACRS activated the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. ACRS significantly inhibited
host resistance to LM during a primary but not a secondary LM infection. During the primary …