*Department of Integrative Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, †Acupunture Meridian Science Research Center, Kyunghee University Seoul, Korea
Severe stress such as immobilization (IMO) affects the central nervous system, the endocrine system and the immune system that interact each other. IMO-induced responses are activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and production of inflammatory cytokine. The locus coeruleus (LC), which is known to play a role in modulating stress response, innervates the paraventricular neucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus thereby activating HPA-axis. In this study, IMO-induced alterations of HPA-axis hormones and interleukin-4 (IL-4) were investigated. The final hormone of HPA-axis, corticosterone (CORT) was injected to clarify the interaction of the HPA-axis and IL-4 in the stress response. Single exposure of stress resulted in an increase of corticotrophin-releasing factor expression in the PVN, adrenocorticotropin hormone and CORT levels in the serum. Increased expressions of HPA-axis hormones in the acute stressed group were decreased in repeated stressed group. IL-4 level in the LC of the brain was decreased in both stressed group and repeated CORT injected group. These results suggest the possibility of stress-induced interplay of HPA-axis and IL-4 in the LC. (Korean J Str Res 2010;18:81∼86)