Early Life Stress in the Pristane Model of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus increases cardiovascular risk but not kidney disease severity earlier in disease progression
Authors: Kellum Cailin , Colson Jackson , Rhoads Megan , Cruz-Ojeda Felix O. , Pollock Jennifer 
Published: May 2024

Experiencing Early Life Stress (ELS), such as physical/verbal abuse before the age of 18, has become an increasingly apparent concern in the context of lifelong health. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is one autoimmune condition linked with ELS, predominantly affects women, and has high CVD burden. Exposure to ELS independently increases the risk of CVD and SLE, so we have developed a model to study this gap. The mouse model of ELS, maternal separation with early weaning (MSEW), combined with the pristane model of SLE mimics the accelerated disease (shown by earlier production of autoantibodies, increased vascular stiffness, and vascular dysfunction at 4 months post injection (p.i.) opposed to 7 months p.i.) in ELS. We hypothesized that the accelerated disease and CVD burden in MSEW+SLE mice, as opposed to normally reared (NR)+SLE mice, arose from severe kidney damage and increased blood pressure. MSEW mice were separated from dams for 4 hours/day (postnatal day 2 to 5) and 8 hours/day before weaning at day 17. NR litters were weaned at postnatal day 21. MSEW or NR female mice were randomly administered PBS or pristane through i.p. injection. Urine was collected at 4 months and 7 months p.i. to test for kidney damage markers and telemetry was utilized. MSEW animals develop increased Anti-Smith autoantibodies at 4 months p.i while SLE NR animals had no difference in titer levels compared to NR PBS mice. However, we found no difference in urine NGAL (Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin) at 4 (p=0.32) or 7 months p.i. (p=0.6) or urine proteinuria 7 months p.i. (p=0.9) between groups. Blood pressure between MSEW+SLE and NR+SLE mice at 4, 5, and 6 months p.i. compared to control mice was not different. At 7 months p.i., SBP in NR+SLE (140.3 ± 10.22, n=4), MSEW+SLE (140.28 ±9.32, n=4) was not statistically greater than the NR/MSEW controls (128.1 ± 3.16, n=5 NR, n=7 MSEW). Ejection fraction in NR+SLE (66.04 ± 3.24, n=3), MSEW+SLE (75.17 ±3.19, n=2) compared to NR/MSEW controls (64.36 ± 2.49, n=5 NR, n=4 MSEW) was slightly changed over time. We see that at 6 months p.i. PWV and adventitial wall thickness is greater in MSEW+SLE (2.89 mm/sec ± 0.11) mice compared to both NR+SLE mice (2.047 mm/sec ± 0.16) and NR control mice (1.49 mm/sec ± 0.12, p=<0.001, F= 26.02), but at seven months PWV is not different between MSEW+SLE (2.94 mm/sec ± 0.13) mice compared to both NR+SLE mice (2.63 mm/sec ± 0.32, p=0.30). The acceleration of autoantibodies and PWV in MSEW+SLE mice, but not kidney or heart function indicates a specific impact on larger vessels and autoimmune cells in SLE. This work furthers the understanding of how ELS accelerates cardiovascular burden in autoimmune diseases and early identifying targets to prevent worsened outcomes in patients exposed to childhood trauma. Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation NIH R25 PROmoTE NIH T32 PRIME F31HL165863-0 NIH P01 HL158500. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.