Cytokine stress responses depend on lateralization in mice

In mice, lateralization as assessed by paw preference represents a behavioral trait linked to immune reactivity and stress susceptibility. Right-pawed mice are more reactive to stress than left-pawed animals when brain metabolism, activation of the corticoid axis, and depression of lymphoproliferation are studied. Since stress responses include cytokine production, we address the possibility that lateralization influences the production of cytokines--especially interleukin (IL)-1--responsible for depression of lymphoproliferation and activation of the corticoid axis. Increased plasma IL-1 level that may be considered as a stress marker, was observed in right- but not in left-pawed mice submitted to a 4 h-restraint. Likewise, plasma levels were greater in right- than in left-pawed animals 2 h after the administration of a low dose of lipopolysaccharides (LPS). By contrast, there was no lateralization effect in restraint-induced plasma level of IL-6 or in the LPS-induced increase in plasma IL-10. Prazosin, an alpha1/alpha2 adrenoreceptor antagonist, drastically increased plasma IL-10 induced by LPS, reduced plasma levels of IL-1 and abolished the effect of lateralization observed after LPS alone. This suggests that alpha-adrenergic modulation of IL-1 production depends on lateralization through mechanisms that need further investigation.