Immunologic Derangement And Apoptosis In Skin Of C3H/HeJ Mouse Induced By Chronic Mild Unpredictable Stress

Objective:1. Establish chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) model toobserve the influence of mental stress on the skin tissue of mice.2. Investigate thechanges of immune related cytokines of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL6and apoptosis relatedproteins Bax, Bcl-2in the skin tissue of mice by chronic mild unpredictable stress.3.Investigate the mechanism of mental stress induced skin immunologic derangement andapoptosis, to provide new ideas and experimental evidence for the treatment of alopeciaareata.Methods:1. Establish CUMS model with C3H/HeJ female mice, compared withthe control group and then, observe the changes of weight, behavior and skin tissue ofmice.2. Added one group of intraperitoneal injection antioxidant，all animals wereassigned to the following three groups randomly: Control group, CUMS group andCUMS+antioxidant group (Tempol group). After21days’ mental stress, observe thebehavior and weight change, detect the levels of plasma corticosterone in mice, observethe skin tissue morphology, use immunohistochemical method to observe theexpressions of the immune related cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β and IL6in skin tissue andquantitative determination by Elisa Kit, observe the expressions of apoptosis relatedprotein Bax and Bcl-2in skin tissue with Western Blot method.Results:1. The weight change of mice: Compared with the Control group, theweight of mice in CUMS group and Tempol group reduced significantly (P<0.01);compared with the CUMS group the weight of mice in Tempol group also reducedsignificantly (P<0.05).2. Behavioral assessment: Compared with Control group, the moving distances and the numbers of grooming behavior in3min of Open-field test inCUMS group and Tempol group were significantly decreased (P<0.01), resting timeincreased significantly (P<0.01).3. Plasma corticosterone: Compared with Controlgroup, the plasma corticosterone levels of CUMS group and Tempol group weresignificantly increased (P<0.01).4. A lot of inflammatory cells aggregated in the skintissue of CUMS group mice, just little in the skin tissue of Control group and Tempolgroup.5. Immune related cytokines: Compared with Control group and Tempol group,the TNF-α, IL-1β and IL6in skin tissue of CUMS group were increased significantly(P<0.05).6. Apoptosis related proteins: Compared with Control group and Tempolgroup, the expression of Bax which is a protein that promoted apoptosis in skin tissue ofCUMS group were increased significantly (P<0.05), but the expression of Bcl-2whichis a protein that inhibited apoptosis in skin tissue was not much difference in the threegroups of mice.Conclusion:1. Chronic mild unpredictable stress model is an ideal model toresearch the role of mental factors in the pathogenesis of the disease.2. Chronic mildunpredictable stress induced the immunologic derangement in the skin tissue ofC3H/HeJ mice, it made the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL6in skin tissue increased.3.Chronic mild unpredictable stress promoted the apoptosis in skin tissue.4. Theexpression of TNF-α and apoptotic protein Bax has positive correlation.5. Theantioxidant Tempol could reverse the effect of chronic mild unpredictable stress causedto the skin tissue of mice.