Long-lasting effects of social stress on peritoneal inflammation in some strains of mice

Adult male mice were kept for one week either one or four animals per cage. Some were maintained under the same social conditions for an additional 9 days (controls); their counterparts were either grouped (4 per cage) or isolated (1 per cage). Changes in housing conditions caused a significant increase of plasma corticosterone measured 30 minutes after separation or grouping of SWISS, C57C3H, and BALB/c but not of C57BL/6 mice. Peritoneal inflammation was induced by i.p. zymosan injection on day 9 after changes in housing conditions when corticosterone was again at its initial level in each group. Peritonitis-connected pain symptoms, exudatory PMN numbers, and cytokine (IL-1beta and MPC-1) and corticosterone levels were compared between animals living in stable social conditions with those shifted 9 days earlier from separation to the group or vice versa. These factors were unaffected by social stress in C57BL/6 mice and in SWISS animals transferred from the group to isolation. In all other instances at least two parameters were significantly different in the post-stressed and control animals, being either enhanced or inhibited. In conclusion, social stress had long-term consequences on the course of inflammation in three out of four investigated strains of mice.