Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
Volume 12, Issue 9, Pages 1157-1163Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S1461145709990502
Keywords
Clomipramine; serotonin; sex differences; stress; thymus
Funding
- Special Account for Research Grants of the University of Athens (Greece)
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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 proliferafion), 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 expose of a thymus-dependent route pertaining to the interactions between antidepressants and the immune system.
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