The Impact of Travel Stressors on the Pathogenesis of Autoimmunity in Female Lupus Mice

Preliminary studies found that an established model of systemic lupus erythematosus, the female NZBWF1 mouse, developed heightened disease severity later in life when shipped to UNTHSC during summer due to travel stressors. We hypothesized that this was partly due to early life stress that the mice experienced, and that eliminating these stressors will attenuate disease severity. We measured biomarkers of disease severity in NZBWF1 mice that were shipped as adults and compared with mice that were shipped in early life along with mice that were not shipped at all. We found that long-term biomarkers were higher in adult travel mice compared to early life travel mice, that these biomarkers were higher in summer mice compared to winter mice, and that non-travelling mice had the highest levels. Our findings indicate that adulthood stress exacerbates disease progression in NZBWF1 mice, and that seasonal factors impacted lupus pathogenesis in these adult mice.