Moreover, as a bite score of about 20 has been identified in previous own studies as critical threshold in terms of CSC-induced splenic invasion of CD11b+ cells and, thus, development of splenomegaly and functional splenic in vitro GC resistance17,18, the statistical main effect of stress on spleen weight and the trend towards an increase in spleen weight in the SHAM-CSC vs. respective SHC group found in the present study is in line with bite scores of slightly above 20 in both CSC groups. Here, ITGAM is linked to Splenomegaly.