title: 60 YEARS OF NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY: Glucocorticoid dynamics: insights from mathematical, experimental and clinical studies.
abstract: A pulsatile pattern of secretion is a characteristic of many hormonal systems, including the glucocorticoid-producing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Despite recent evidence supporting its importance for behavioral, neuroendocrine and transcriptional effects of glucocorticoids, there has been a paucity of information regarding the origin of glucocorticoid pulsatility. In this review we discuss the mechanisms regulating pulsatile dynamics of the HPA axis, and how these dynamics become disrupted in disease. Our recent mathematical, experimental and clinical studies show that glucocorticoid pulsatility can be generated and maintained by dynamic processes at the level of the pituitary-adrenal axis, and that an intra-adrenal negative feedback may contribute to these dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and EndocrinologyUniversity of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NY, UKCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, UKWellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Modelling and AnalysisRILD Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Spiga
authors.affiliation: Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and EndocrinologyUniversity of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NY, UKCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, UKWellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Modelling and AnalysisRILD Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and EndocrinologyUniversity of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NY, UKCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, UKWellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Modelling and AnalysisRILD Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and EndocrinologyUniversity of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NY, UKCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, UKWellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Modelling and AnalysisRILD Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: Jamie J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and EndocrinologyUniversity of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NY, UKCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, UKWellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Modelling and AnalysisRILD Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and EndocrinologyUniversity of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NY, UKCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, UKWellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Modelling and AnalysisRILD Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and EndocrinologyUniversity of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NY, UKCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, UKWellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Modelling and AnalysisRILD Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Terry
authors.affiliation: Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and EndocrinologyUniversity of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol BS1 3NY, UKCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QF, UKWellcome Trust Centre for Biomedical Modelling and AnalysisRILD Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK stafford.lightman@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Stafford L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Lightman
mesh_terms: D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000378:metabolism*; D009452:Neuroendocrinology; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000378:metabolism*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids
keywords: HPA axis; adrenal cortex; glucocorticoids; ultradian rhythms