Psychological stress and colitis

Idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic relapsing condition.The role of stress in causing relapses of inflammatory bowel disease remains controversial.We now show that colitis induced in mice by dinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (DNBS) resolves by 6 weeks, but can subsequently be reactivated by stress plus a sub-threshold dose of DNBS, but not by DNBS alone.Stress reduced colonic mucin and increased colon permeability.Susceptibility to reactivation by stress required CD4+ lymphocytes and could be adoptively transferred.We conclude that stress reactivates experimental colitis by facilitating entry of luminal contents that activate previously sensitized CD4 cells in the colon.on July 26,