Interleukin-6 (IL-6) may play a causal role in the increased ischemic damage after stroke associated with social isolation in mice. (2009)
From the article:
Researchers at Ohio State University found that all the male mice that lived with a female partner survived seven days after a stroke, but only 40 percent of socially isolated animals lived that long.
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The amount of tissue damage in the brain was about four times larger in the mice housed alone compared to those housed with another mouse.
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“The number of neurons dying is significantly decreased in the pair-housed mice,” DeVries said.
In addition, socially housed mice had significantly less edema, or excess water in the brain, when compared to the isolated animals.
“In clinical stroke, edema is a major concern because it can lead to additional neuronal damage, so it is significant that pair housing reduced edema,” Karelina said.
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In addition, findings revealed that mice that lived with others had significantly higher levels of a cytokine in their brain called interleukin-6 (IL-6) that has an anti-inflammatory response in the brain, helping to limit damage caused by the stroke.
The finding about IL-6 is especially interesting, Karelina said, because IL-6 appears to have opposite effects in the brain than it does in the rest of the body.
“IL-6 reduces inflammation in the brain, so it is protective in a stroke, but it is a pro-inflammatory in the periphery of the body,” Karelina said.