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IL-4 Knock Out Mice Display Anxiety-Like Behavior

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Abstract

Inflammation is a recognized antecedent and coincident factor when examining the biology of anxiety. Little is known, however, about how reductions in endogenous anti-inflammatory mediators impact anxiety. Therefore, mood- cognition- and anxiety-associated/like behaviors were examined in IL-4 knock out (KO) mice and wild-type (WT) mice. In comparison to WT mice, IL-4 KO mice demonstrated decreased burrowing and increased social exploration. No differences were seen in forced swim or saccharine preference testing. IL-4 KO mice had similar performance to WT mice in the Morris water maze and during object location and novel object recognition. In the elevated zero-maze, IL-4 KO mice, in comparison to WT mice, demonstrated anxiety-like behavior. Anxiety-like behavior in IL-4 KO mice was not observed, however, during open-field testing. Taken together, these data indicate that IL-4 KO mice display state, but not trait, anxiety suggesting that reductions in endogenous anti-inflammatory bioactives can engender subtypes of anxiety.

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Abbreviations

CNS:

Central nervous system

IL:

Interleukin

KO:

Knockout

TNF:

Tumor necrosis factor

WT:

Wild-type

LPS:

Lipopolysaccharide

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health: DK064862, NS058525, AA019357 to GGF and DK59802 to the Division of Nutritional Sciences as a Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award Predoctoral Fellowship to MLM.

Conflict of Interest

Morgan L Moon, Jennifer J Joesting, Neil A Blevins, Marcus A Lawson, Stephen J Gainey, Albert E Towers, Leslie K McNeil, Gregory G Freund declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All animal use was performed according to protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Illinois.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

    Morgan L. Moon, Albert E. Towers & Gregory G. Freund

  2. Department of Pathology, Program in Integrative Immunology and Behavior, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 506 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Jennifer J. Joesting, Neil A. Blevins, Leslie K. McNeil & Gregory G. Freund

  3. Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

    Marcus A. Lawson, Stephen J. Gainey & Gregory G. Freund

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  1. Morgan L. Moon
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Correspondence to Gregory G. Freund.

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Moon, M.L., Joesting, J.J., Blevins, N.A. et al. IL-4 Knock Out Mice Display Anxiety-Like Behavior. Behav Genet 45, 451–460 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-015-9714-x

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