Restraint stress increases neuroinflammation independently of amyloid β levels in amyloid precursor protein/PS1 transgenic mice.

Both hypercortisolemia and hippocampal damage are features found in patients diagnosed of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and epidemiological evidence supports a role for stress as a risk factor for AD. It is known that immobilization stress is followed by accumulation of oxidative/nitrosative mediators in brain after the release of proinflammatory cytokines, nuclear factor kappa B activation, nitric oxide synthase-2 and cyclooxygenase-2 expression. Long-term exposure to elevated corticosteroid levels is known to affect the hippocampus which plays a central role in the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. We therefore studied the effect of chronic immobilization stress on amyloid precursor protein/PS1 mice. Stress exposure increased AD-induced neuroinflammation characterized by astrogliosis, increased inflammatory gene transcription and lipid peroxidation. Importantly, immobilization stress did not increase the soluble or insoluble amyloid β levels suggesting that increased cortisol levels lower the threshold for a neuroinflammatory response, independently from amyloid β. Since inflammation may act as a factor that contributes disease progression, the stress-inflammation relation described here may be relevant to understand the initial mechanisms in underlying the risk enhancing action of stress on AD.