TY - JOUR
T1 - Chronic psychological stress exaggerates the compound 48/80-induced scratching behavior of mice
AU - Zhao, Peng
AU - Hiramoto, Tetsuya
AU - Asano, Yasunari
AU - Kubo, Chiharu
AU - Sudo, Nobuyuki
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partially supported by Grants-in-Aid for General Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in Japan (N.Sudo, No. 19390192 , No. 22659144 and No. 24659350 ), and a research grant from the Yakult Bioscience Research Foundation (N. Sudo).
Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/4
Y1 - 2013/4
N2 - Although accumulating clinical evidence has shown that psychological stress worsens cutaneous symptoms by exaggerating scratching behavior, how the stress affects the scratching is unclear. Therefore, we herein investigated this using an animal model of scratching. Male BALB/c mice were exposed to 1 h water avoidance stress (WAS) for ten consecutive days. Twenty-four hours after the last stress session, the mice were injected into the back of the neck with a condensation product of N-methyl-p- methoxyphenethylamine with formaldehyde (compound 48/80), and their scratching behavior was then observed for 120 min. Mast cell number in the skin and histamine and corticosterone levels in the plasma were examined. The scratching number was significantly higher in the chronic WAS group than in the control group. Both mast cell number in the skin and the peak histamine in the plasma after the compound 48/80 injection were also significantly higher in the chronic WAS group in comparison to the control group. Chronic WAS delayed the peak corticosterone plasma response to the compound 48/40 injection. These findings indicate that chronic WAS exacerbates the compound 48/80-induced scratching behavior of mice. Both the increased number of skin mast cells and delayed glucocorticoid reaction may be related to this exacerbation.
AB - Although accumulating clinical evidence has shown that psychological stress worsens cutaneous symptoms by exaggerating scratching behavior, how the stress affects the scratching is unclear. Therefore, we herein investigated this using an animal model of scratching. Male BALB/c mice were exposed to 1 h water avoidance stress (WAS) for ten consecutive days. Twenty-four hours after the last stress session, the mice were injected into the back of the neck with a condensation product of N-methyl-p- methoxyphenethylamine with formaldehyde (compound 48/80), and their scratching behavior was then observed for 120 min. Mast cell number in the skin and histamine and corticosterone levels in the plasma were examined. The scratching number was significantly higher in the chronic WAS group than in the control group. Both mast cell number in the skin and the peak histamine in the plasma after the compound 48/80 injection were also significantly higher in the chronic WAS group in comparison to the control group. Chronic WAS delayed the peak corticosterone plasma response to the compound 48/40 injection. These findings indicate that chronic WAS exacerbates the compound 48/80-induced scratching behavior of mice. Both the increased number of skin mast cells and delayed glucocorticoid reaction may be related to this exacerbation.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.pbb.2013.02.014
DO - 10.1016/j.pbb.2013.02.014
M3 - Article
C2 - 23474370
AN - SCOPUS:84875071622
VL - 105
SP - 173
EP - 176
JO - Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
JF - Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
SN - 0091-3057
ER -