An efficient chronic unpredictable stress protocol to induce stress-related responses in C57BL/6 mice.

ABSTRACT: Exposure to chronic stress can have broad effects on health ranging from increased predisposition for neuropsychiatric disorders to deregulation of immune responses. The chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) protocol has been widely used to study the impact of stress exposure in several animal models and consists in the random, intermittent, and unpredictable exposure to a variety of stressors during several weeks. CUS has consistently been shown to induce behavioral and immunological alterations typical of the chronic stress-response. Unfortunately C57BL/6 mice, one of the most widely used mouse strains, due to the great variety of genetically modified lines, seem to be resistant to the commonly used 4-week-long CUS protocol. The definition of an alternative CUS protocol allowing the use of

SUBMITTER: Monteiro S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4313595 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature