Figure 2

Schematic and timeline for acute predatory stress model studies. PS consisted of placing a mouse inside a clear plastic hamster ball and then into the home cage of a large adult male Long Evans rat for 30 min. Mice were then examined for changes in plasma CORT and inflammatory mRNA within various brain regions (hypothalamus, hippocampus, midbrain, prefrontal cortex) and spleen immediately (0 min), 0.5, 1, 2 hr after PS ended. Inflammatory mRNA was also examined at 4 and 8 hr after PS. In a separate set of mice and to determine whether PS modulated a wider number of inflammatory genes in the midbrain, a qPCR array of 84 inflammatory genes was run at 1 hr post stress.