Huber Nikolaus, Fusani Leonida, Ferretti Andrea, Mahr Katharina, Canoine Virginie
Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, Department of Integrative Biology and Evolution, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstraße 1, 1160 Vienna, Austria; Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Integrative Biology and Evolution, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstraße 1, 1160 Vienna, Austria.
Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Integrative Biology and Evolution, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstraße 1, 1160 Vienna, Austria; Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstraße 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Physiol Behav. 2017 Dec 1;182:46-53. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.09.017. Epub 2017 Sep 27.
Stress is a collective term for certain conditions and sequences of physiological events enabling living organisms to overcome unpredictable and uncontrollable situations. The context-dependent nature, multidimensional course and large individual variability make stress responses difficult to measure. In avian species, a plethora of studies on short-term stress responses have been conducted by measuring the corticosteroid response to a standardized stress protocol. Here we aimed to test the viability of the leukocyte coping capacity (LCC), measuring oxygen radical production by leukocytes, to assess short-term stress in birds. We collected blood samples from captive house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in the two seasons of winter and spring, right after capture and 30min thereafter. In order to assess the overall physiological stress response to a standardized stressor, i.e. handling and temporary constraint, we measured LCC and additionally combined it with measures of total circulating glucocorticoids (GCs) and oxidative stress. All three methodologies detected significant changes due to the stressor albeit they were not correlated with each other and revealed different information. There was no significant change in oxidative stress levels between the two time points although the amount of relative oxidative damage as well as the anti-oxidative capacity changed significantly. We observed a significant seasonal difference in GC stress response with no difference between sexes. On the contrary, LCC measures revealed with a high individual consistency, that individuals experienced a similar magnitude of stress in both seasons with a significant difference between sexes. Total GC-levels have to be interpreted with caution regarding the assessment of short-term stress reactions. We therefore suggest to supplementary combine classical approaches for measuring stress with the immunological tool of LCC. Our results reveal LCC as a strong and reliable tool to assess short-term stress in captive house sparrows and as promising for other bird species. Collectively the study highlights the necessity to incorporate a range of physiological systems and their endpoints to measure and to assess stress reactions effectively.
应激是指某些生理状况和生理事件序列的统称，这些生理状况和事件序列能使生物体克服不可预测和无法控制的情况。应激反应具有情境依赖性、多维度过程以及较大的个体变异性，这使得对应激反应的测量变得困难。在鸟类中，已经通过测量对标准化应激方案的皮质类固醇反应，开展了大量关于短期应激反应的研究。在此，我们旨在测试白细胞应对能力（LCC）的可行性，即通过测量白细胞产生氧自由基的情况，来评估鸟类的短期应激。我们在冬季和春季这两个季节，对圈养的家麻雀（Passer domesticus）在捕获后及30分钟后采集血样。为了评估对标准化应激源（即处理和临时约束）的整体生理应激反应，我们测量了LCC，并将其与总循环糖皮质激素（GCs）和氧化应激的测量结果相结合。尽管这三种方法检测到的应激源引起的显著变化彼此不相关且揭示了不同的信息，但它们均检测到了显著变化。尽管相对氧化损伤量和抗氧化能力发生了显著变化，但两个时间点之间的氧化应激水平没有显著变化。我们观察到GC应激反应存在显著的季节差异，且两性之间无差异。相反，LCC测量结果显示个体一致性较高，即个体在两个季节中经历的应激程度相似，但两性之间存在显著差异。在评估短期应激反应时，对于总GC水平必须谨慎解读。因此，我们建议将测量应激的经典方法与LCC的免疫学工具补充结合起来。我们的结果表明，LCC是评估圈养家麻雀短期应激的一种强大且可靠的工具，对其他鸟类也很有前景。总体而言，该研究强调了纳入一系列生理系统及其终点指标以有效测量和评估应激反应的必要性。
