Frequency-selective thymic programming by early-life cold stress requires interferon regulatory factor 5

Early-life environmental stressors can program immune development, but how the frequency of cold stress shapes thymic programming remains unknown.

Developmentally matched (day 4, poikilothermic, yolk sac or milk dependent) zebrafish larvae and neonatal mice were exposed to two or four cycles of cold stress (termed 2× or 4× stress). Thymic development (zebrafish) and thymic T cell subsets (mice) were assessed, followed by influenza A virus (IAV) challenge in mice. Mechanisms were explored by RT-qPCR, western/dot blotting, and irf4/5 transgenic or irf5 knockout zebrafish.

In Tg(rag2:DsRed) zebrafish larvae, 2× stress increased the percentage of larvae exhibiting a DsRed⁺ thymus, without significantly altering overall fluorescence area and MFI of the thymus, whereas 4× stress markedly reduced both of the latter parameters. These opposite phenotypic effects correlated with divergent expression patterns of lepb, lepr, irf4/5, and stat3. In neonatal mice, 2× stress enhanced thymic CD3 expression on CD4⁺CD8⁺(DP) and CD4⁺ cells and improved acute survival following IAV infection, whereas 4× stress reduced DP proportion and CD3 expression across multiple subsets, increased CD4⁺ cells, and offered no acute protection against IAV infection, yet unexpectedly enhanced long-term survival when infected as adults. 2× and 4× stress induced divergent dynamics of leptin, IRF4/5 and inflammatory factors. Transgenic overexpression of irf5, but not irf4, reprogrammed the frequency-selective cold stress response in larvae, irf5 knockout subsequently abrogated these effects on thymic development and altered baseline expression of leptin signaling-related genes.

Early-life cold stress programs thymic immunity in a frequency-selective manner. Zebrafish genetics establish a causal requirement for IRF5, while mouse data show correlative changes in leptin signaling and IRF4/5. These findings highlight stress frequency as a key determinant of early-life immune programming and suggest potential windows for precise immunomodulation.