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.

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.