title: Acute ether stress differentially affects corticotropin-releasing factor and urocortin 1 in the Brattleboro rat.
abstract: Arginine-vasopressin (AVP), corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and urocortin 1 (Ucn1) play a role in the stress response. The CRF-producing paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), oval bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTov) and central amygdala (CeA), and the Ucn1-expressing non-preganglionic Edinger-Westphal nucleus (npEW) all possess AVP receptors. We hypothesized that AVP is involved in the response of these four brain centers to acute physiological (ether) stress. To test this hypothesis, we studied AVP-deficient Brattleboro (BB) rats using quantitative immunocytochemistry. First, we showed that non-stressed wild-type (WT) and BB rats did not differ from each other in Fos contents, indicating similar (immediate early) gene expression activity, but that in BB rats CRF contents were lower in the PVN and higher in the CeA. Second, we found that stress induced Fos response in the PVN, CeA and npEW with strengths different for each center, but similar for BB and WT rats. Finally, no effects of stress on CRF and Ucn1 contents were seen in the WT rat brain, but in BB rats stress increased CRF contents in the PVN, and the CeA revealed more CRF in stressed BB than in WT rats. On the basis of these results we propose that during acute stress AVP interacts with, especially, the PVN and the CeA, to change their rates of biosynthesis and/or release of CRF.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Animal Physiology, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Neuroscience, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sterrenburg
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borch
authors.forename: Bernard W M M
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.forename: Ottó
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pintér
authors.forename: Dóra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zelena
authors.forename: Eric W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Roubos
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kozicz
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D003346:Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011910:Rats, Brattleboro; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D054832:Urocortins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D054832:Urocortins; D003346:Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone