Immune response of stressed rats treated with dextro-amphetamine or propranolol.

Rats were immunized with sheep erythrocytes, and 4 days in succession were stressed by restraint for 3 hours/day, or injected with dextro-amphetamine (7.5 mg/kg/day) or propranolol (0.1 mg/kg/day), or both stressed and treated with one of the drugs. Hemolytic plaque-forming cells (PFC) were counted in the spleens on the 5th day. Stress caused marginal suppression of the PFC response. The suppression was considerably potentiated by amphetamine and negligibly so by propranolol. Effect of the drugs has been discussed in view of altered corticosterone secretion.