b-Adrenergic receptor involvement in emotional stress-induced

Using a new established emotional stress model, our previous work has demonstrated that exposure of chronic stress to rats immunized with ovalbumine induced a decrease of the level of specific anti-ovalbumine IgG antibody production. The present study assessed the involvement of the b-adrenergic receptor (b-ADR) in the stress-induced immune suppressive effect. Rats were administered the nonselective b-ADR antagonist propranolol in doses of 1, 5 or 15mg/kg i.p 30min before each stress procedure. Propranolol in doses of 5 and 15mg/kg but not 1mg/kg completely reversed stress-induced immunosuppression. The results suggest that b-ADR is involved in the stress-induced suppression of humoral immune function.IUPsy