Abstract:
This study employed an acute stress mouse model to systematically explore the regulatory effects of Pien Tze Huang (PTH) on myeloid and lymphoid immune cells in acutely stressed mice. C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into a control group, an acute restraint stress group, and high dose and low dose Pien Tze Huang groups with acute restraint stress. Except for the control group, mice in the other groups were administered drugs by gavage for 7 consecutive days before the experiment. On the 7
th day, after drug administration, restraint stress was applied for 18 h, followed by an additional 2 days of drug administration. Mice were then sacrificed to measure the weights of the spleen and thymus and calculate organ indices. Flow cytometry was used to detect the numbers and proportion of myeloid and lymphoid immune cells in the spleen and peripheral blood of mice. The phagocytic capacity of peritoneal macrophages in mice was also measured. The results show that acute restraint stress increased the proportion of myeloid cells (eosinophils, macrophages) in peripheral blood and the spleen of mice, while decreasing the proportion of lymphoid immune cells (CD3
+CD4
+ T cells, CD3
+CD8
+ T cells, natural killer T cells, B cells). It also reduced the phagocytic function of peritoneal macrophages in mice. After treatment with PTH, the proportion of myeloid cells (eosinophils) in peripheral blood and the spleen of stressed mice decreased, while the proportion of lymphoid immune cells (CD3
+CD4
+ T cells, CD3
+CD8
+ T cells, natural killer T cells, B cells) increased. Additionally, the phagocytic function of peritoneal macrophages improved. This study shows that PTH can alleviate immune disorders caused by acute stress, providing experimental evidence for its use in treating psychosocial stress-related diseases. This experiment was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Jinan University (Approval No.: IACUC-20240220-14).