Impact of early life stress on the immune response and bone regeneration after fracture.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42440408.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1016/j.bonr.2026.101932 and PMC identifier 13333303.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Early-life stress (ELS) constitutes an enormous socio-economic burden and is an acknowledged risk factor for the development of several affective and somatic conditions, including bone disorders. However, its effects on bone fracture healing have not been studied yet. Here, we implemented a novel two-hit model in male and female C57BL/6N mice, where we used maternal separation (MS) to induce ELS and combined it with a standardized right femur osteotomy stabilized by an external fixator. Behavior was analyzed using the Open Field/Novel Object test, Social Preference/Avoidance test and Saccharin Preference test. Fracture healing was evaluated by biomechanical testing, μCT, histology, and cytokine assays. Maternal separation let to an altered inflammatory response 3 h after fracture, indicated by a significant reduction in several pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. This effect was more pronounced in male mice. However, later fracture phases (10 days and 21 days after osteotomy) showed no significant differences between stressed and control mice. Our results indicate that ELS might alter inflammatory responses towards bone fracture in a sex-specific manner without disturbing fracture healing.