Mice chronically infected with mycobacterium avium show no signs of depressive/anxiety-like behaviour
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1
School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, Portugal
A remarkable finding of the last decades is the bidirectional interaction between the immune and central nervous systems. This interaction has been suggested as a potential cause of depression, a disease for which the aetiology is still a matter of intense debate. Alterations on the cytokines profile have been shown to cause depression namely upon immunotherapy based on the administration of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The fact that the symptoms of depressive behaviour almost immediately disappear after termination of cytokine administration supports a causal role for cytokines in the mediation of this condition. Moreover an increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-1, IL-6, TNF, IFN-g) has been shown to be a frequent finding in depressed patients. The cytokine hypothesis of depression is also supported by results from rodent models of depression. In animal models, stimulation of the immune system due to an acute infection, administration of LPS or pro-inflammatory cytokines (high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines during a short period of time) causes what is called sickness behaviour. This syndrome is characterised by a pattern of behavioural alterations with great similarities with those of depressed individuals. However, chronic infections (with moderate levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines during a long period of time) are very frequent and information is lacking on their possible role in depression and other mood disorders. To investigate the role of chronic infection in mood disorders we chose the mouse model of Mycobacterium avium infection. Here we show that although the levels of at least two important pro-inflammatory cytokines, IFN-g and TNF, are increased during infection, C57BL/6 female mice chronically infected with M. avium do not display obvious signs of anxious or depressive-like behaviour.
Conference:
11th Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience, Braga, Portugal, 4 Jun - 6 Jun, 2009.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Barriers of the Brain
Citation:
Roque
S,
Nobrega
C,
Nunes-Alves
C,
Sousa
N,
Palha
J and
Correia-Neves
M
(2009). Mice chronically infected with mycobacterium avium show no signs of depressive/anxiety-like behaviour.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
11th Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.01.2009.11.036
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Received:
06 Aug 2009;
Published Online:
06 Aug 2009.
*
Correspondence:
Nuno Sousa, School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, Braga, Portugal, njcsousa@med.uminho.pt