Superovulation induced by exogenous gonadotropin treatment (PMSG/hCG) increases the number of available oocytes in humans and animals. However, Superovulatory PMSG/hCG treatment is known to affect maternal environment, and these effects may result from PMSG/hCG treatment-induced oxidative stress. 2-Cys peroxiredoxins (2-Cys Prxs) act as antioxidant enzymes that protect cells from oxidative stre...

The combined administration of physiological (cold pressor) and psychological (social-evaluative threat) stressors, as in the socially evaluated cold pressor test (SECPT; Schwabe et al., 2008) activates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Thus far, the SECPT has been administered exclusively to individual participants, which requires substanti...

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)-synthesizing neurons of the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) play a key role in the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). We used whole-cell patchclamping to record spontaneous and miniature excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs/mEPSCs and sIPSCs/mIPSCs) from parvocellular neuroendocrine neurons of the rat ...

Habituation is a term commonly used to explain a decrement in response intensity to a repeated stimulus or set of stimuli. In the stress literature, hormonal habituation is often used to describe a situation where an individual has learned to perceive a repeated stressor as innocuous, and thus the intensity of the release of hormonal stress mediators reduces over time. Consequently, a habituate...

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)-synthesizing parvocellular neuroendocrine neurons of the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) play a key role in the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). It is well known that excitatory and inhibitory inputs that regulate the activity of these neurons may undergo stress-related modifications; however, the effect of repeated re...