We have explored the role of individual elements of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis on the pathogenesis of hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure. Five groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. Control animals had 3 days of sham treatment followed by a hyperinsulinemic/hypoglycemic glucose clamp on day 4. A second group underwent 3 days of antecedent insulin-induced hypoglycemia ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) genomic region confers genetic susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the Spanish population. METHODS DNA was obtained from 121 simplex RA families and 101 healthy controls, all from Spanish origin. Two microsatellites, CRHRA1 and CRHRA2, located 25 and 20 kb downstream respectively from the CRH gene were exam...

BACKGROUND A study was undertaken to assess the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) in a group of asthmatic children before and after treatment with inhaled corticosteroids. METHODS Thirty prepubertal patients of mean (SD) age 6.7 (1.8) years were treated with inhaled corticosteroids. All children underwent a corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) test with evaluation of...

Regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is critical for adaptation to environmental changes. The principle regulator of the HPA axis is corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), which is made in the parventricular nucleus and is an important target of negative feedback by glucocorticoids. However, the molecular mechanisms that regulate CRH are not fully understood. Disruption ...

The relationship between hypothyroidism and disturbance of the hypothalamo-hypophysial-adrenal axis was investigated using adult male rats. Hypothyroidism was produced by administration of 4-methyl-2-thiouracil (thiouracil) in the drinking water for 2 weeks. Hypothyroidism decreased adrenal weights to 57% of controls and plasma concentrations of corticosterone to 48% of controls. The changes in...

The best known family B, or Type II, G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) recognize peptides as ligands. The receptors for corticotrophin-releasing factor, parathyroid hormone and secretin typify this group. However, there are only 15 such GPCRs. Many other receptors share sequence homology and have been assigned to this family. The ten 'Frizzled' and one 'Smoothened' receptors show the lowest s...

Stressful events before or just after parturition alter the subsequent phenotypical response to stress in a general process termed programming. Hypoxia during the period before and during parturition, and in the postnatal period, is one of the most common causes of perinatal distress, morbidity, and mortality. We have found that perinatal hypoxia (prenatal day 19 to postnatal day 14) augmented ...

The urocortins are a family of endogenously produced peptide hormones that show great promise as potential drugs for the treatment of heart disease. They can increase contractility and cardiac output without causing changes in mean arterial blood pressure. As expected, the receptor for these peptides is present in cardiomyocytes, and they can bind and protect these cells from simulated ischemia...