Adequate maternal behavior in rats requires minimal corticotropin-releasing factor receptor (CRF-R) activation in the medial-posterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (mpBNST). Based on the architectural heterogeneity of the BNST and its distinct inter-neural connectivity, we tested whether CRF-R manipulation in another functional part, the anterior-dorsal BNST (adBNST), differentially modu...

OBJECTIVE Agouti protein (AP) and agouti-related protein with a similar sequence and action are endogenous antagonists of melanocortin receptors, implicated in the control of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Dominant mutation of the agouti gene (agouti yellow (A(y))) in heterozygous A(y)/a mice leads to ectopic overexpression of AP and produces an obese phenotype. The existing data...

The report of Monjan and Collector (1) emphasizes the modulating effects of stress on the immune response in mice. This important and timely contribution strengthens a growing awareness that either intentional or uncontrolled anxietystress in various forms can have critical effects on immunological and pathological reactions in-mice and other experimental animals. There are some technical matte...

The distribution and properties of cytoplasmic binding sites for the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone and the natural glucocorticoid corticosterone in the brain and the pituitary were studied in detail. Cortisol-17 beta acid, a derivative which does not bind to the glucocorticoid receptor but is a competitor of corticosterone binding to plasma, was used to overcome plasma interference. In...

Birds respond to short-term deterioration in foraging conditions by increasing their plasma level of corticosterone but the physiological effects of long-term deterioration in food supplies are not well known. In resident passerine birds that winter in temperate climates, such as the mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli), the food supply may be limited and unpredictable over long periods of time...

Psychological stress can suppress baroreflex function, but the mechanism has not been fully elucidated. Nitric oxide in the brain and in the adrenal cortex, as well as plasma glucocorticoids, increases during stress and has been shown to suppress reflex gain in unstressed animals. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that stress, caused by exposure to a novel environm...

A unique circadian rhythm of intraocular pressure (IOP) occurs in laboratory rabbits housed in a light-dark environment. The IOP is low in the light and high in the dark. In 32 rabbits studied, the IOP was 18.7 +/- 0.3 mm Hg (mean +/- the standard error of the mean) at 2 hr before the onset of dark and 24.9 +/- 0.6 mm Hg at 2 hr into the dark. The changes in endogenous hormones corresponding to...

At present it is not clear which factors are responsible for the diurnal pattern of plasma leptin levels, although the timing of food intake and circulating hormones such as glucocorticoids and insulin have both been proposed as independent determinants. In this study we show that ablation of the biological clock by thermal lesions of the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) completely el...

We have investigated the possible involvement of endogenous corticosteroids in the maintenance of hypertension in aged lean and obese Zucker rats using the type II corticosteroid antagonist mifepristone. At 8 mo of age, the start of the study, obese Zuckers had been hypertensive for at least 2 mo (systolic blood pressure; 153 +/- 4 vs. 136 +/- 5 mmHg; n = 8-9; P < .05) and were hyperinsulinemic...