Fig. 2

Acute transient sickness behavior post-injection. Body weights were monitored daily (a), revealing that LPS-treated mice lost weight acutely post-LPS administration at 4 days post-surgery. TBI + LPS group had a reduced weight trajectory until at least 4 days post-LPS, suggesting a synergistic effect of TBI and LPS (Three-way mixed-effects ANOVA post-hoc; *p < 0.05 indicates TBI + LPS vs all other groups). LPS-treated mice showed a reduction in time spent investigating a novel stimulus mouse at 6 h after LPS administration (b). In an open field test, locomotor activity was reduced in LPS-treated mice at 3 h and 6 h post-LPS administration; however, recovered to saline-treated control levels by 24 h (c). In the same test, LPS-treated mice spent less time in the center zone (indicating increased anxiety) only at 3 h post-LPS (d) (two-way ANOVA, effect of LPS). *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, ****p ≤ 0.0001; n = 10–12/group