Effects of Stress on lymphoid organs and Blood Leukocytes of Rats

Abstract

Does chronic stress effect lives even after the stress has ceased? Many of us (particularly college students) experience chronic stress for years. We all know chronic stress can wreak havoc on our lives, but will it continue to do so even after the stress has stopped? In a recent study, adult female rats were placed in an environment of high physical stress for twelve weeks. A significant decrease was found in the body weight, lymphoid organs, total leukocytes, and an increase in apoptotic cells in lymphoid organs of the rats. After four weeks of removed stress, no significant increase in any of the recorded subjects were found. Long term chronic stress may not be reversible, or the four week recovery period was not long enough. Unfortunately, we cannot purposefully reproduce this experiment and inflict chronic stress on humans, so it is not a subject able to be studied for us first hand. But data concluded from studies like these on rats can give us a clue to what is going on in our bodies as well. Stress can also be challenging to keep scientifically constant. Just like in people, one cannot predict what will stress a rat. One can keep everything constant, but cannot directly control the exact amount of stress a rat is feeling.