60. The influence of cohabitation with a sick cage mate on pulmonary allergic inflammatory response in mice

Abstract

The bidirectional relationships between the nervous and immune systems are of great importance for the maintenance of homeostasis. Our laboratory showed that the prolonged cohabitation with a sick cage mate induced behavior, physiological and immunity changes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of cohabitation for 14 days with sick cage mate on an immune-mediated lung inflammatory response. For this, Balb/C mice were paired into 2 groups: control and experimental. One mice of each control group was injected with PBS and the other was called “health companion”. One mice of each experimental group was inoculated with 5x106 Ehrlich tumor cells and, the other animal, the main object of this study was called “sick companion”. Allergic lung inflammation was induced using the well-established ovalbumin model of asthma. Results showed that cohabitation with sick cage mate produced a significant increase in the cellularity of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) and cytokines IL-4, IL-5 on BAL supernatant and decrease IL-10 and immunoglobulin IgG2a. However, no significant differences were found in corticosterone levels, IL-13 on BAL, cellularity of bone marrow and peripheral blood. The present data provide experimental evidence that cohabitation with a tumor bearing mice regulate parameters of allergic lung inflammation. FAPESP: 2012/03372–3; 2009/51886–3.