| Title | Chronic antidepressant treatment exerts sexually dimorphic immunomodulatory effects in an experimental model of major depression: do females lack an advantage? | | Author(s) | Pitychoutis PM, Griva E, Ioannou K, Tsitsilonis OE, Papadopoulou-Daifoti Z | | Institution | Department of Pharmacology, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece. | | Source | Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 2009 Aug 24.:1-7. | | Abstract | Major depression is a stress-related disorder that affects about 20% of the population, with women outnumbering men by 2:1. However, research focusing on stress/antidepressant-related immunomodulation overlooks sex differences, although an established sexual dimorphism also characterizes the immune system. We report for the first time that both chronic clomipramine treatment (10 mg/kg, twice daily) and chronic mild stress (CMS) application in rats, exert sexually dimorphic effects on cellular immunoreactivity (natural killer and lymphokine-activated killer cell cytotoxicity and interleukin-2-induced T-cell proliferation), with females presenting a relatively immunosuppressed phenotype compared to males. Moreover, following chronic antidepressant treatment, thymic monoamines presented sex-related alterations, as well as intriguing associations with peripheral T-cell responses. This study highlights the sex-related effects of chronic clomipramine treatment and CMS application on the cellular arm of immunity, and represents a preliminary exposé of a thymus-dependent route pertaining to the interactions between antidepressants and the immune system. | | Language | ENG | | Pub Type(s) | JOURNAL ARTICLE
| | PubMed ID | 19698192 |
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