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Effect of gradual increase and decrease in temperature on innate, cellular and humoral immunity in striped hamsters

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Abstract

Environmental temperature can affect immune responses in animals. In order to understand the effect of gradual increase or decrease of temperature on immune function, adult female striped hamsters (Cricetulus barabensis) were randomly assigned into the 3 °C (n = 12), 23 °C (n = 12) and 32 °C (n = 12) groups. Body mass did not differ among the three groups during the course of the experiment. With the decrease of temperature, gross energy intake (GEI) increased, but total body fat mass decreased, indicating hamsters not only elevated GEI but also mobilized energy storage to satisfy the increased energy demand under cold conditions. Compared with the 23 °C group, low temperature suppressed innate immunity reflected by bacteria killing capacity, but did not affect thymus, spleen, white blood cells (WBC), cellular immunity indicated by phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) responses, the levels of immunoglobin (Ig) G and IgM, cytokines (i.e., IL-4, TNF-α and IFN-γ) and all the hematological parameters detected. IL-2 titres augmented with the decline of temperature. Compared to the 23 °C group, IgM 10 was lower but PHA 12 h and PLT were higher in the 32 °C group, indicating high temperature reduced humoral immunity, but enhanced cellular immunity and coagulation ability. However, high temperature had no effect on other immunological parameters including thymus, spleen, WBC, IgG, cytokines (i.e., IL-4, TNF-α and IFN-γ) and all the hematological indices except PLT. Corticosterone level was unaffected by high or low temperature. No correlations were found between body fat mass, corticosterone and most immune parameters, implying they were not the reason of changes in immunity.

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Data availability

The datasests generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The present study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32171496; 31770444) and the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents (Grant no. IMP2104). We are grateful for the valuable suggestions provided by the two anonymous reviewers.

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  1. School of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, 57 Jingxuan West Road, Qufu, 273165, Shandong Province, People’s Republic of China

    De-Li Xu & Yuhui Wang

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DLX conceived and designed the experiment. YHW carried out this experiment. DLX analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to De-Li Xu.

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Xu, DL., Wang, Y. Effect of gradual increase and decrease in temperature on innate, cellular and humoral immunity in striped hamsters. Mamm Biol 103, 265–276 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-023-00351-w

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