Antistress effect of Semax in the course of recovery of spleen lymphoid structures after the stress in rats with different behavioral activity.

Bulletin of experimental biology and medicine2012PMID: 23113251

Animal StudySemax

Plain Language Summary

Semax was given to rats before a one-hour stress exposure and its effects on the spleen — an immune organ sensitive to stress — were tracked over 30 days. Stress normally triggers a destructive surge of macrophages in the spleen's active immune zones; Semax reduced this inflammatory cell expansion and tissue damage for up to two weeks after the stress event. The study provides direct evidence that Semax's stress-protective effects extend to immune organ integrity, not just the brain.

Abstract

We studied the effect of antistress peptide Semax, an ACTH4-10 analogue, on the cellular composition of spleen lymphoid structures in Wistar rats with different stress tolerance in the course of post-stress recovery (days 1, 3, 14, and 30). Preliminary administration of Semax alleviates stress-induced proliferation of macrophages and destructive processes in functionally active zones of the rat spleen on days 1, 3, and 14 after the stress exposure, which attests to its capacity to reduce the adverse effects of 1-h stress load on proliferation of macrophages and destructive processes in functionally active zones of this organ.

Authors

Bakhmet, A A; Koplik, E V