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The impact of environmental enrichment on the murine inflammatory immune response
Samuel Brod, … , Mauro Perretti, Fulvio D’Acquisto
Samuel Brod, … , Mauro Perretti, Fulvio D’Acquisto
Published April 6, 2017
Citation Information: JCI Insight. 2017;2(7):e90723. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.90723.
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Research Article Immunology Inflammation

The impact of environmental enrichment on the murine inflammatory immune response

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Abstract

Living in a mentally and physically stimulating environment has been suggested to have a beneficial effect on the immune response. This study investigates these effects, utilizing a 2-week program of environmental enrichment (EE) and 2 models of acute inflammation: zymosan-induced peritonitis (ZIP) and the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model of sepsis. Our results revealed that following exposure to EE, mice possessed a significantly higher circulating neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio compared with control animals. When subject to ZIP, EE animals exhibit enhanced neutrophil and macrophage influx into their peritoneal cavity. Corresponding results were found in CLP, where we observed an improved capacity for enriched animals to clear systemic microbial infection. Ex vivo investigation of leukocyte activity also revealed that macrophages from EE mice presented an enhanced phagocytic capacity. Supporting these findings, microarray analysis of EE animals revealed the increased expression of immunomodulatory genes associated with a heightened and immunoprotective status. Taken together, these results provide potentially novel mechanisms by which EE influences the development and dynamics of the immune response.

Authors

Samuel Brod, Thomas Gobbetti, Beatrice Gittens, Masahiro Ono, Mauro Perretti, Fulvio D’Acquisto

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Figure 11

Differential ex vivo activity of leukocytes isolated from mice housed in a standard or enriched lab environment.

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Differential ex vivo activity of leukocytes isolated from mice housed in...
(A) Comparative levels of BODIPY-linked E. coli phagocytosed by Bio-Gel P-100–generated macrophages in 1 hour were measured in mice housed in a standard (SE) or enriched environment (EE). EE macrophages were observed to engulf a significantly higher number of bacterial particles than SE. *P < 0.05 by 2-tailed t test. Representative of n = 3 experiments, 12 mice per experiment. (B) Comparative levels of CD11b and CD62L expression by activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) extracted from EE and SE animals were measured by flow cytometry. Following stimulation with either 10−9 M platelet activating factor (PAF) (B) or 50 ng/ml TNF-α (C) for 15 or 30 minutes, no differences in expression were detected. Values are presented as individual data points with means (horizontal bars) ± SEM of 6 mice and n = 2 experiments. Significance calculated (none found) by 2-way ANOVA.

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