Description: Chronic social stress may aggravate neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), U.S. researchers report. The team at Texas A&M University also said certain interventions may prevent or halt stress-related inflammation, however. In experiments on mice, the researchers found that social stress increased central nervous system (CNS) inflammation. Stress appeared to elevate levels of a cytokine called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which led to increased severity of MS-like illness in the mice.