Genetics and sex influence peripheral and central innate immune responses and blood-brain barrier integrity

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a stimulator of the innate immune system and is routinely used in animal models to study blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction under inflammatory conditions. It is appreciated that both humans and mice have sexually dimorphic immune responses, which could influence the brain’s response to a systemic inflammatory insult. Mouse strain is also an important factor that can contribute to pathophysiological responses to inflammatory stimuli. Therefore, we aimed to test whether BBB disruption and the associated cytokine profiles in response to LPS differed in male and female mice from two mouse strains most commonly used in blood-brain barrier studies: CD-1 and C57BL6/J (C57). Mice were treated with saline, a single injection of 0.3, or 3mg/kg LPS, or three injections of 3mg/kg LPS, and studied 28 hours after the first LPS injection. To assay BBB disruption, we utilized the tracer 99mTc-DTPA. A 23-plex panel of cytokines was assayed in brain and blood of the same cohort of mice, which allowed us to compare differences in the levels of individual cytokines as well as correlations among cytokines and 99mTc-DTPA uptake. We found that only the three-injection dose of LPS induced significant BBB disruption in all sexes and strains. The treatment, strain, and sex, as well as treatment-by- strain and treatment-by-sex interactions significantly contributed to the variance. The mean brain/serum ratios of 99mTc-DTPA in the three-injection LPS group were ranked CD-1 male < CD-1 female < C57 male < C57 female. There were significant sex and strain differences in cytokine profiles in brain and blood, and pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in brain were most strongly correlated with 99mTc-DTPA brain/serum ratios.