Early-life exposure to lipopolysaccharide reduces the severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in adulthood and correlated with increased urine corticosterone and apoptotic CD4+ T cells

Early-life exposure to bacterial endotoxins, such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS), can provide neuroprotection against experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) during adulthood, possibly through altering the responsiveness of the immune system. Here, we show that exposure of LPS to neonatal rats resulted in a sustained elevation of corticosterone level in urine when compared with saline-treated rats, and that the high level of urine corticosterone was maintained during the progression of EAE (P