Pro-susceptible mice had higher numbers of circulating leukocytes, and leukocyte number and IL-6 release correlated negatively with social interaction ratio, indicating a predictive relationship. Increased leukocyte

number is likely driven by an increase in blood CD11b+ monocytes, as significant differences in proportions of leukocyte subtypes between susceptible and resilient mice were observed only in monocytes. Generation of chimeric mice via transplantation of bone marrow hematopoietic progenitor cells from a susceptible donor produced a robust social avoidance phenotype compared learn more to control bone marrow chimeras. In contrast, chimeras generated via transplantation of progenitors from an IL-6−/− donor demonstrated behavioral resilience to CSDS, behaving similarly to IL-6−/− mice and mice treated with an IL-6 antibody, which binds and neutralizes IL-6 in the peripheral circulation. These findings suggest that peripherally derived IL-6 drives susceptibility to CSDS, and that susceptible and resilient mice display baseline differences in leukocyte number and responsiveness. The mechanisms contributing to pre-existing

differences in stress responsive IL-6 release and circulating Selleck Crizotinib leukocyte number are under investigation and will inform our understanding of immune regulation in resilience. Experiments investigating whether peripheral blood leukocytes of mice susceptible to CSDS, like splenic leukocytes in mice exposed to SDR, display glucocorticoid resistance may prove particularly fruitful. As mentioned above, increased levels of CD11b+ monocytes in blood and spleen are both a risk factor for susceptibility to CSDS and a consequence of RSD in mice. A likely nearly mechanism underlying this increased number of monocytes/macrophages is direct sympathetic nervous system innervation of bone marrow and control of bone marrow hematopoiesis via β-adrenergic signaling. Two recent studies propose that stress promotes proliferation and egress of immature,

pro-inflammatory myeloid cells from the bone marrow. Powell et al. (Powell et al., 2013) reported that in mice subjected to RSD, stress induces a transcriptional pattern that ultimately leads to myelopoiesis favoring immature, proinflammatory monocytes and granulocytes that express high and intermediate levels, respectively, of the surface marker Ly6c. RSD results in a 4-fold higher prevalence of monocytes in blood and spleen as well as a 50–70% increase in monocytic and granulocytic bone marrow progenitor cells. Post-RSD genome-wide analysis of the peripheral blood mononuclear cell transcriptome revealed a transcriptional mechanism underlying this phenomenon—enhanced expression of proinflammatory genes and genes related to myeloid cell lineage commitment accompanied by decreased expression of genes related to terminal myeloid differentiation.