Emotional stress has been shown
to augment humoral responses such as, immunoglobulin-antibody interactions.
This is significant in the neonatal intestine because immunoglobulins (Ig) have
been shown to be involved in coating gut microbiota which affects the health of
the intestines. The effect of emotional stress on the maternal and neonatal
immune system is not completely known. Thus, the goal of this study was to
measure the effect of antibody presence in serum. Three controls and three
stressed mice were used to generalize the effects of an emotional stress model
on mice. Chronic unpredicted stress (CUS) was induced in pregnant mice, and
serum was acquired from the dams or controls pre and post CUS. IgA and IgM were
measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) sandwich technique to
observe absorbance and relate values to concentration using known standards.
Here we found that serum IgA concentration did not significantly change before
and after stress. IgM did appear to decrease in serum after dams were exposed
to CUS. This study provides more material displaying that humoral immune
response is altered secondary to emotional stress. Future studies will test the
effect of this maternal phenotype in offspring.