Project 463204

Psychological stress can reshape how the brain communicates with our immune system. We have reasons to believe that psychological stress occurring soon after birth rewires the immune system differently in men and women; and that these modifications may last for life. Our research is thus dedicated to understand the mechanisms that cause these differences, and how these modifications may increase the severity of infections differently in men and women. By using a rat model of early life stress (maternal separation), we will characterize how early life stress impacts immune development in females and males at multiple ages, including before, during and after puberty. We will also investigate the role of female and male sex hormones in early life stress modulation of the immune system. Finally, we will determine whether early life stress has functional consequences on viral infection severity and inflammatory response in females and males. Thus, by understanding these differences, we hope to define better approaches to efficiently reduce the severity of diseases caused by infections for everyone.