Enriched environment regulates thymocyte development and alleviates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in mice.

ABSTRACT: Environmental and social factors have profound impacts on immune homeostasis. Our work on environmental enrichment (EE) has revealed a novel anti-obesity and anticancer phenotype associated with enhanced activity of CD8⁺ cytotoxic T lymphocytes in secondary lymphoid tissues. Here we investigated how an EE modulated thymus and thymocyte development. EE decreased thymus mass and cellularity, decreased the double positive thymocyte population, increased the proportion of CD8⁺ T cells, reduced the CD4:CD8 ratio, and downregulated CD69 expression in T cells. In a model of multiple sclerosis: experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), EE alleviated symptoms, inhibited spinal cord inflammation through regulation of type 1 T-helper cells mediated by glucocorticoid recep

SUBMITTER: Xiao R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6279528 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature