Abstract
Sickness behavior (SB) is considered part of the adaptive behavioral and neuroimmune changes that occur in response to inflammatory processes. However, SB is a motivational state modulated by the environmental context. The objective of this study was to evaluate if selenium could ameliorate symptoms of SB and if stress would affect these responses. We induced SB in rats using lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We choose selenium based on our findings of LPS-exposure decreasing selenium levels in rats. We exposed these rats to a psychogenic stress and studied motivational modulation paradigms, such as cure of the organism, preservation of the species, and fight or flight. We studied ultrasonic vocalizations, open-field behaviors, body weight, and IL-1 beta and IFN-gamma serum levels. LPS-induced SB was evidenced by decreased motor/exploratory activity and increased proinflammatory mediators’ levels. Selenium treatment did not exert beneficial effects on SB, revealing that probably the selenium deficiency was not related to SB. When analyzed with the stress paradigm, the behavior of rats was differentially affected. LPS did not affect behavior in the presence of stress. SB was abrogated during stressor events to prioritize survival behaviors, such as fight-or-flight. Contrarily, the association of LPS, selenium, and stress induced SB even during stressor events, revealing that this combination induced a cumulative toxic effect.
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Acknowledgements
This work is part of the master thesis of Túlio Mazuco (UNIP). The authors are grateful to Profa. Dra. Elizabeth Cristina Perez Hurtado, Wilton Pereira dos Santos, and Fabiana Toshie de Camargo Konno (UNIP) for technical support. This research was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq/Universal 406835/2016-0), the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES/Prêmio 1029/2014) and the Paulista University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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ESM 1
Example of 22–28 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations. Effects of LPS (100 μg/kg), selenium (Na2SeO3; 1.3 mg/kg), and stress (restraint) on 22–28 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations in adult male rats. Example of ultrasonic vocalizations detected in the frequency range of 22–28 kHz in stressed rats: (A) amplitude-time plot of the entire recording (300 s); (B) amplitude-time plot of the selected interval (corresponds to the part of A marked in yellow); (C) spectrogram of the selected data, showing four syllables emitted by a rat (PNG 310 kb)
ESM 2
22–28 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations. Effects of LPS (100 μg/kg), selenium (Na2SeO3; 1.3 mg/kg), and stress (restraint) on the 22–28 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations of adult male rats. (SAL) saline; (LPS) lipopolysaccharide; (Se) selenium; (Str) stress. 1 h between each injection; 1 h after the last injection for the beginning of the stress session (n = 4–7 per group; two-way ANOVA followed by the Newman-Keuls test). Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM (PNG 111 kb)
ESM 3
Body weight. Effects of LPS (100 μg/kg), selenium (Na2SeO3; 1.3 mg/kg), and stress (restraint) on the body weight of adult male rats. Rat’s body weight was calculated immediately after the open-field test. This time interval was greater than 4 h from the first injection. (SAL) saline; (LPS) lipopolysaccharide; (Se) selenium; (Str) stress. 1 h between each injection; 1 h after the last injection for the beginning of the stress session (n = 7 per group; two-way ANOVA followed by the Newman-Keuls test). Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM (PNG 35 kb)
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Mazuco, T.R.R., Biondi, T.F., Silva, E.P. et al. LPS-induced sickness behavior is not affected by selenium but is switched off by psychogenic stress in rats. Vet Res Commun 43, 239–247 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-019-09766-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-019-09766-8