Differential weight loss with intermittent fasting or daily calorie restriction in low- and high-fitness phenotypes.

New Findings: What is the central question of this study? How does intrinsic aerobic capacity impact weight loss with 50% daily caloric restriction and alternate-day fasting? What is the main finding and its importance? Intermittent fasting is effective for weight loss in rats with low fitness, which highlights the importance of how intermittent fasting interacts with aerobic fitness.

Abstract: Recent interest has focused on the benefits of time-restricted feeding strategies, including intermittent fasting, for weight loss. It is not yet known whether intermittent fasting is more effective than daily caloric restriction at stimulating weight loss and how each is subject to individual differences.

Sensitized corticosterone responses do not mediate the enhanced fear memories in chronically stressed rats.

Following a stressful event, the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis mediates the release of the stress hormone cortisol (corticosterone in rodents; CORT). Elevated CORT binds to glucocorticoid receptors to mediate physiological responses including facilitating memory formation. Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that male rats exposed to chronic stress demonstrate enhanced contextual fear memories and sensitized CORT responses to subsequent stress exposure; however, this is unknown in female rats.

Neuroendocrine Regulation of Brain Cytokines After Psychological Stress.

There is growing evidence that stress-induced brain cytokines are important in the etiology of depression and anxiety. Here, we review how the neuroendocrine responses to psychological stressors affect the immediate and long-term regulation of inflammatory cytokines within the brain and highlight how the regulation changes across time with repeated stress exposure. In doing so, we report on the percentage of studies in the literature that observed increases in either IL-1, TNF-, or IL-6 within the hypothalamus, hippocampus, or prefrontal cortex after either acute or chronic stress exposure.