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.

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.