Selective vulnerability of the hippocampus to interoceptive stress: Effects on interleukin-1β and erythropoietin

Abstract

The selective vulnerability of the hippocampus to damaging extreme influences, ischemia, hypoxia, and metabolic stress is well known. However, the question of the selective vulnerability of the hippocampus to acute interoceptive stress remains to be investigated. Here, we studied the time course of the neuroinflammatory response to systemic administration of bacterial LPS at a high dose. We examined the level of proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β and the expression of the cytoprotective protein erythropoietin and correlations between these indices. We found that interoceptive stress induced a rapid inflammatory response in the nervous tissue, which may be considered as an adaptive response. The neuroinflammation declined in the neocortex but increased in the hippocampus. This effect may be considered as the deadaptation of this structure at this stage of the inflammatory response.