Stress has well-appreciated deleterious effects on the immune system. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lowry and colleagues demonstrate that exposure of mice to heat-killed Mycobacterium vaccae, a free-living bacteria with immunomodulatory properties, can promote resilience in a mouse model of psychosocial stress. Vaccination of mice with M. vaccae produces a relatively long-lasting benefit in coping with stress. In addition to the behavioral effects of exposure to M. vaccae, mice also show alterations in serotonergic systems in the brain and increased density of microglia in brain regions associated with fear responses. Stress also exacerbates experimental models of inflammatory bowel disease. Accordingly, M. vaccae also ameliorates stress-enhanced inflammatory bowel disease. The beneficial effects of M. vaccae on stress are mediated at least in part by its ability to generate and/or support the function of regulatory T cells.
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Fehervari, Z. Coping with stress. Nat Immunol 17, 748 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3498
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3498
