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Sex differences in peripheral not central immune responses to pain-inducing injury.

ABSTRACT: Women suffer chronic pain more frequently than men. It is not clear whether this is due to differences in higher level cognitive processes or basic nociceptive responses. In this study we used a mouse model of neuropathic pain to dissociate these factors. We performed RNA-seq on purified peripheral afferent neurons, but found no striking differences in gene expression between male and female mice, neither before nor after nerve injury. Similarly, spinal cord immune responses between the sexes appeared to be indistinguishable when studied by flow cytometry or qRT-PCR. Differences emerged only upon studying peripheral immune cell infiltration into the dorsal root ganglion, suggesting that adaptive immune responses in neuropathic pain could be sexually dimorphic.

SUBMITTER: Lopes DM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5705679 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sex differences in peripheral not central immune responses to pain-inducing injury.

Lopes Douglas M DM Malek Natalia N Edye Michelle M Jager Sara Buskbjerg SB McMurray Sheridan S McMahon Stephen B SB Denk Franziska F

Scientific reports 20171128 1

Women suffer chronic pain more frequently than men. It is not clear whether this is due to differences in higher level cognitive processes or basic nociceptive responses. In this study we used a mouse model of neuropathic pain to dissociate these factors. We performed RNA-seq on purified peripheral afferent neurons, but found no striking differences in gene expression between male and female mice, neither before nor after nerve injury. Similarly, spinal cord immune responses between the sexes ap ...[more]

PMID: 29184144

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Project description:Adversity during development is a reliable predictor of psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety which are increasingly recognized to have an immune component. We have previously demonstrated that chronic adolescent stress (CAS) in rats leads to depressive-like behavior in adulthood along with long-lasting changes to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and pro-inflammatory cytokine induction in the hippocampus. However, the mechanisms by which CAS promotes hippocampal inflammation are not yet defined. Here we tested the hypothesis that a history of CAS exaggerates induction of the pro-inflammatory NF?B pathway in the adult rat hippocampus without compromising the peripheral immune response. We also assessed potential sex differences because it is unclear whether females, who are twice as likely to suffer from mood disorders as males, are disproportionally affected by stress-primed inflammation. Male and female adolescent rats underwent a CAS paradigm or received no stress. Six weeks following the last stressor, all rats received a single systemic injection of either lipopolysaccharide or vehicle to unmask possible immune-priming effects of CAS. An NF?B signaling PCR array demonstrated that CAS exaggerated the expression of NF?B-related genes in the hippocampus of both males and females. Interestingly, targeted qPCR demonstrated that CAS potentiated the induction of hippocampal IL1B and REL mRNA in female rats only, suggesting that some immune effects of CAS are indeed sex-specific. In contrast to the hippocampal findings, indices of peripheral inflammation such as NF?B activity in the spleen, plasma IL-1?, IL-6, TNF-?, and corticosterone were not impacted by CAS in female rats. Despite showing no pro-inflammatory changes to hippocampal mRNA, male CAS rats displayed lower plasma corticosterone response to LPS at 2?h after injection followed by an exaggerated plasma IL-1? response at 4?h. This potentially blunted corticosterone response coupled with excessive innate immune signaling in the periphery is consistent with possible glucocorticoid resistance in males. In contrast, the effects of CAS manifested as excessive hippocampal immune reactivity in females. We conclude that while a history of exposure to chronic adolescent stress enhances adult immune reactivity in both males and females, the mechanism and manifestation of such alterations are sex-specific.

Dataset Information

Sex differences in peripheral not central immune responses to pain-inducing injury.

Publications

Sex differences in peripheral not central immune responses to pain-inducing injury.

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