Does avoidance-learning stress increase susceptibility to Coxsackie B1 virus infection in mice?
Avoidance-learning stress increases susceptibility to Coxsackie B1 virus infection in mice, leading to higher mortality and viral titers in organs including the heart.
Summary Coxsackie virus B1 infections were induced in mice subjected to avoidance-learning stress and in unstressed controls. Infected, stressed mice were more susceptible than infected, unstressed mice as manifested by weight loss and deaths during the 1st week after inoculation, and as an increased dispersion in weight changes about 5 weeks after inoculation. A significantly higher virus titer could be demonstrated in the pancreas, liver, heart and muscle of stressed mice as compared to unstressed mice.
Johnsson et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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