Abstract
Psychogenic hyperthermia is a stress-related condition reported mostly in women. Neuroendocrine responses to stress in females differ from those in males, and these differences cannot be explained solely based on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity. Here, we used infrared (IR) thermographic imaging to record changes in cutaneous temperature following two types of stressful experiences in female and male mice. Mice were exposed to either single-session restraint stress or vertical exploration (rearing) deprivation and were monitored for exploratory activity and IR surface thermal changes. Females displayed higher rearing activity than males during the dark phase of the light cycle. Both sexes showed similar plasma corticosterone (CORT) responses after a challenge with restraint and rearing deprivation. However, only females responded to rearing deprivation with increased cutaneous temperature in the head and back, and a reduced thermal response in the tail. Circulating CORT levels were not correlated with the thermal variations. These findings, for the first time, provide evidence for sex-specific cutaneous thermal responses to short-term stress in mice following transient vertical-activity deprivation that may mimic clinical psychogenic hyperthermia.
Highlights
Intrinsic factors, as well as type, duration, and intensity of stress, determine the variation in physiological and behavioral stress responses
On day 10, individual animals were subjected to a single session of restraint stress for 20 min immediately followed by IR thermal recording and blood sampling 3–4 min later
The present study provides the first description of sex-dependent thermal responses to acute experimental stress in a mouse model
Summary
As well as type, duration, and intensity of stress, determine the variation in physiological and behavioral stress responses. Preclinical studies mainly used males in the study of neurobiological and mental health correlates of stress vulnerability (Beery and Zucker, 2011) Studies using both sexes in rodents revealed robust sexual dimorphisms in psychoneurological responses to stressful challenges (Lin et al, 2009; Yamaura et al, 2013; Goodwill et al, 2019). The present experiment was designed to examine sex differences in the cutaneous temperature during two types of short-term stress in mice along with biological and behavioral markers of HPA axis activation. The findings, for the first time, provide evidence for sex-specific cutaneous thermal response in mice following transient rearing deprivation that may mimic clinical psychogenic hyperthermia
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