OBJECTIVES There are some evidences indicating that stress can affect hippocampal survival and function. During pregnancy mother is exposed to more stress and anxiety; also adrenal gland response to ACTH and glucocorticoid secretion is increased. Hence this study was done to assess the effect of restraint stress on corticosterone level, hippocampal caspase-3 and MAPK activation during pregnancy...

Repeated, extreme, or traumatic stressors can elicit pathological effects leading to many negative physical and psychological outcomes. Stressors can precipitate the onset of psychiatric diseases, or exacerbate pre-existing disorders including various anxiety and mood disorders. As stressors can negatively impact human psychiatric health, it is essential to identify neurochemicals that may conf...

–The present study investigated the effects of 21 days of chronic restraint stress on neural and endocrine parameters in male and female rats. Consistent with previous results, repeated restraint stress induced apical dendritic atrophy (a decrease in the number of apical branch points and dendritic length) of the CA3c pyramidal neurons in male rats. In contrast, female rats did not show signifi...

Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) level is modulated during multiple stress reactions both in brain structures involved in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation and peripheral systems. Multiple distinct stressors induce different IL-1β and HPA axis responses. The purpose of the present study was to determine if the effect of prior repeated restraint stress on IL-1β levels in prefrontal cort...

BACKGROUND Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) deficiency confers vulnerability to stress, but the mechanisms are unclear. BDNF(+/-) mice exhibit behavioral, physiological, and neurochemical changes following low-level stress that are hallmarks of major depression. After immune challenge, neuroinflammation-induced changes in tryptophan metabolism along the kynurenine pathway mediate depres...

Visceral hypersensitivity has been implicated as an important pathophysiological mechanism in functional gastrointestinal disorders. In this study, we investigated whether the sustained visceral hyperalgesia induced by repeated psychological stress in rats involves the activation of CRF(1) signaling system using two different antagonists. Male Wistar rats were exposed to 10 consecutive days of ...