Systemic Staphylococcus aureus infection in restraint stressed mice modulates impaired immune response resulting in improved behavioral activities

Abstract

Stress leads to immune malfunction and increased susceptibility to infection resulting in impaired cognitive behavior and depression. Working with an animal model of Staphylococcus aureus infection and restraint stress we demonstrated impaired immune response and altered behavior against the S. aureus infection after exposure to acute or chronic restraint stress. This enhanced the resistance of mice to S. aureus infection via inhibiting the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, free radicals, and upregulating corticosterone and anti-inflammatory cytokine production, resulting in altered exploratory behavior, compared to non-stressed infected group (P < 0.05), thereby helping the animals to recover from depressive-like symptoms due to stress.