Social stress paradigms in male mice: Variations in behavior, stress and immunology

Male OF1 strain mice were allocated, after 2 weeks of individual housing, to cohabitating (6 or 16 days), fixed dyadic interaction pairs (6 or 16 daily encounters) or control groups (6 or 16 days). These different social stress situations were assessed for their effects on splenic contents of NE, IL-1 and IL-2 and serum levels of corticosterone. Spleen NE contents showed no significant variations, but serum corticosterone titers were generally higher in interacting pairs and subordinates. Splenic IL-2 did not respond in the same way to the treatments as IL-1. The differences in splenic interleukin contents could not be simply related to observed changes in serum corticosterone levels. Different mechanisms appear to regulate changes in glucocorticoids and the measured cytokines. These physiological phenomena do not simply reflect in the animal's social status (dominant or submissive). The intensity and duration of the agonistic behavior displayed as well as the interaction experience accumulated may account for the observed differences between the paradigms.