Effects of Early Life Stress on Synaptic Plasticity in the Developing Hippocampus of Male and Female Rats.

Introduction: Early life stress (ELS) increases the risk for developing psychopathology in adulthood. When these effects occur is largely unknown. We here studied at which time during development ELS affects hippocampal synaptic plasticity, from early life to adulthood, in a rodent ELS model.

Cannabinoid modulation of midbrain urocortin 1 neurones during acute and chronic stress.

Neurones in the centrally projecting Edinger-Westphal nucleus (EWcp) are the main site of urocortin 1 (Ucn1) synthesis in the mammalian brain, and are assumed to play a role in the stress response of the animal. Because endocannabinoid signalling has also been strongly implicated in stress, we hypothesised that endocannabinoids may modulate the functioning of the urocortinergic EWcp. First, using in situ hybridisation, we demonstrated cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R) mRNA expression in mouse EWcp-neurones that were Ucn1-negative.

Sex differences in urocortin 1 dynamics in the non-preganglionic Edinger-Westphal nucleus of the rat.

Women have higher vulnerability to stress and stress-induced diseases than men. Estrogen may be involved in the control of sex-dependent stress adaptation via estrogen receptors alpha and beta (ERalpha/beta). Urocortin 1 (Ucn1) in the npEW plays an important role in stress adaptation.

Sex-specific expression of BDNF and CART in the midbrain non-preganglionic Edinger-Westphal nucleus in the rat.

In mammals, females generally appear more vulnerable to stressors than males. The non-preganglionic Edinger-Westphal nucleus (npEW) has been implicated in regulation of the stress response. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and cocaine- and amphetamine-related transcript peptide (CART) are sex-specifically involved in the stress response too, and are present in the human and rat npEW.

Housekeeping genes revisited: different expressions depending on gender, brain area and stressor.

Housekeeping gene (HKG) mRNAs are used to normalize expression data of genes of interest in quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction studies. Such normalization assumes constant HKG gene expression under all circumstances. Although sporadic evidence suggests that HKG expression may not always fulfill this requirement and, therefore, such normalization may lead readily to erroneous results, this fact is generally not sufficiently appreciated by investigators.

Presence of estrogen receptor beta in urocortin 1-neurons in the mouse non-preganglionic Edinger-Westphal nucleus.

Adaptation to stress involves the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA-) axis. Urocortin 1 (Ucn1) coordinates responses to stressors. An increasing body of evidence suggests that such responses are sexually dimorphic and in females depend on the phase of the estrous cycle.

Early maternal deprivation retards neurodevelopment in Wistar rats.

A single 24 h period of maternal deprivation (MD) in rats has been shown to induce, in adulthood, a number of abnormalities in brain and behaviour that also occur in patients with schizophrenia. However, the short-term behavioural effects of MD have not been studied in detail. Since patients with schizophrenia are characterized by a retardation of normal development, we aimed in the present study to investigate the development of control rats and rats that were exposed to MD on postnatal day 9.