Abstract
In this experiment, mice were exposed to a distinctive environment and either the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporin (Csp) or saline. For some Csp-treated mice, exposure to the distinctive environment coincided with Csp injections (paired or conditioned animals). For others, Csp injections occurred 24 h after exposure to the distinctive chamber (unpaired or nonconditioned animals). The study was terminated after only four injections, because of unexplained deaths in 17% of the animals. Postmortem examinations suggested that these deaths may have been due to pathogen(s) introduced from a contaminated injection. The surprising observation was that these deaths occurred mostly in unpaired animals and not in either saline control or paired animals. Because paired animals had received the same immunosuppressant drug and dose from the same contaminated drug supply as had the unpaired animals, the differential mortality observed in these two groups suggests that conditioning aided the survival of paired animals. This interpretation is consistent with recent demonstrations of compensatory conditioning of immune function.
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This research was supported by grants from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Medical Research Fund of New Brunswick. Donation of cyclosporin from the Pharmaceuticals Division of Sandoz Canada Inc. is greatfully acknowledged.
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Krank, M.D., Jacob, J., O’Neill, S. et al. Pavlovian conditioning with cyclosporin enhances survival from infectious peritonitis. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 30, 71–73 (1992). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330400
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330400