Microbiota-immune-brain interactions: A new vision in the understanding of periodontal health and disease.

This review highlights the significance of interactions between the microbiota, immune system, nervous and hormonal systems, and the brain on periodontal health and disease. Microorganisms in the microbiota, immune cells, and neurons communicate via homeostatic nervous and hormonal systems, regulating vital body functions. By modulating pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory adaptive immune responses, these systems control the composition and number of microorganisms in the microbiota.

Does a single exposure to social defeat render rats more vulnerable to chemically induced colitis than brief inescapable foot-shocks?

All mammals are to different degrees exposed to stressors being physical or social, which may affect health and well-being. Stressful and traumatic situations have direct effects on immune responses that may alter susceptibility to developing somatic illnesses. In animal research, different types of stressors have been investigated in studying the effect on bowel disorders, some stressors being more or less of environmental origin.

Vitamin D Supplementation during Winter: Effects on Stress Resilience in a Randomized Control Trial.

Vitamin D status may be important for stress resilience. This study investigated the effects of vitamin D supplements during winter on biological markers of stress resilience such as psychophysiological activity, serotonin, and cortisol in a placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial. Eighty-six participants were randomly assigned to the Intervention (vitamin D) or Control (placebo) groups.

A systematic review of studies utilizing hair glucocorticoids as a measure of stress suggests the marker is more appropriate for quantifying short-term stressors.

Quantitating glucocorticoids (GCs) in hairs is a popular method for assessing chronic stress in studies of humans and animals alike. The cause-and-effect relationship between stress and elevated GC levels in hairs, sampled weeks later, is however hard to prove. This systematic review evaluated the evidence supporting hair glucocorticoids (hGCs) as a biomarker of stress.

Comparison of commercial ELISA assays for quantification of corticosterone in serum.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits are widely used to quantify corticosterone levels for the assessment of stress in laboratory animals. The aim of this experiment was simply to evaluate if four different and widely used commercial ELISA assays would yield the same or similar values of corticosterone in serum samples taken from laboratory rats after the mild stress of being held for sampling blood from the saphenous vein. Trunk blood was sampled from 32 male Wistar rats 30 minutes after this mild stress exposure and analysed with each of four commercial ELISA kits.

A Rodent Model of Night-Shift Work Induces Short-Term and Enduring Sleep and Electroencephalographic Disturbances.

Millions of people worldwide are working at times that overlap with the normal time for sleep. Sleep problems related to the work schedule may mediate the well-established relationship between shift work and increased risk for disease, occupational errors and accidents. Yet, our understanding of causality and the underlying mechanisms that explain this relationship is limited.

Mild daily stressors in adulthood may counteract behavioural effects after constant presence of mother during early life.

This study investigated adult rat behaviour in three early life conditions, and how behaviour was affected after exposure to chronic mild stressors in later life. During postnatal days 2-14, male Wistar rats were exposed daily to either long or brief maternal separation, or were left undisturbed with their mothers (non-handled). As adults, non-handled and long maternally separated offspring demonstrated less object exploration than brief maternally separated offspring.

Cognitive functioning and cortisol profiles in first episode major depression.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is often associated with high levels of stress and disturbances in the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) system, yielding high levels of cortisol, in addition to cognitive dysfunction. Previous studies have shown a relationship between cortisol profile and cognitive functioning in recurrent MDD in general. More specifically, the association between hypercortisolism and cognitive functioning, such as memory and Executive Functioning (EF), and also more recently cortisol suppression has been explored.

Maternal Deprivation of Lewis Rat Pups Increases the Severity of Experi-mental Periodontitis in Adulthood.

Background And Objective: Early life adverse events may influence susceptibility/resistance to chronic inflammatory diseases later in life by permanently dysregulating brain-controlled immune-regulatory systems. We have investigated the impact of infant-mother separation during early postnatal life on the severity of experimental periodontitis, as well as systemic stress and immune responses, in adulthood.

Material And Methods: Pups of periodontitis resistant Lewis rats were separated from their mothers for 3 h daily during postnatal days 2-14 (termed maternal deprivation; MD), separated for 15 min daily during the same time period (termed handling; HD), or left undisturbed.

Effects of social defeat on sleep and behaviour: importance of the confrontational behaviour.

We studied the short- and long-term effects of a double social defeat (SD) on sleep parameters, EEG power, behaviour in the open field emergence test, corticosterone responsiveness, and acoustic startle responses. Pre-stress levels of corticosterone were assessed before all rats were surgically implanted with telemetric transmitters for sleep recording, and allowed 3weeks of recovery. Rats in the SD group (n=10) were exposed to 1hour SD on two consecutive days, while control rats (n=10) were left undisturbed.

Cognitive functioning and cortisol suppression in recurrent major depression.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is often associated with high levels of stress and disturbances in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system, yielding high levels of cortisol in addition to cognitive dysfunction. The aim of the present study was to examine the relation between cortisol levels after the dexamethasone suppression test and cognitive function in recurrent unipolar MDD patients. Twenty-four patients meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.

Hypothermia after chronic mild stress exposure in rats with a history of postnatal maternal separations.

The circadian system develops and changes in a gradual and programmed process over the lifespan. Early in life, maternal care represents an important zeitgeber and thus contributes to the development of circadian rhythmicity. Exposure to early life stress may affect circadian processes and induce a latent circadian disturbance evident after exposure to later life stress.

Early and later life stress alter brain activity and sleep in rats.

Exposure to early life stress may profoundly influence the developing brain in lasting ways. Neuropsychiatric disorders associated with early life adversity may involve neural changes reflected in EEG power as a measure of brain activity and disturbed sleep. The main aim of the present study was for the first time to characterize possible changes in adult EEG power after postnatal maternal separation in rats.

The availability and mobility of arsenic and antimony in an acid sulfate soil pasture system.

The Macleay floodplain on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, has surface soil concentrations of up to 40 mg kg(-1) arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb), due to historical mining practices in the upper catchment. The floodplain also contains areas of active and potential acid sulfate soils (ASS). Some of these areas are purposely re-flooded to halt oxidation processes, but the effect of this management on the metalloid mobility and phytoavailability of the metalloids present is unknown.

Restoring psychology's role in peptic ulcer.

This paper reviews the history of the transition from the belief that gastrointestinal ulcers are caused primarily by psychological factors to the current state of belief that they are caused primarily by infection and argues that neither is fully accurate. We argue that psychological factors play a significant role as predisposing to vulnerability, modulating of precipitation, and sustaining of gastric ulceration. We review data that challenge the assumption of a simple infectious disease model and adduce recent preclinical data that confirm the predisposing, modulatory, and sustaining roles for psychological factors.

Rate of change in physical fitness and quality of life and depression following exercise training in patients with congestive heart failure.

Exercise training appears to improve peak oxygen consumption (VO(2) ) and quality of life (QOL) in heart failure patients, although disease etiology, patient demographics and medication may alter the rate of adaptation. The authors sought to identify rate of change from baseline in fitness, QOL, and depression following exercise training in a cohort of patients with congestive heart failure. Thirty male systolic heart failure patients (aged 63.

Post-transcriptional effects and interactions between chronic mild stress and acute sleep deprivation: regulation of translation factor and cytoplasmic polyadenylation element-binding protein phosphorylation.

Stress and restricted or disrupted sleep trigger adaptive responses in the brain at the level of gene transcription. We investigated the possible impact of chronic mild stress (CMS), acute sleep deprivation, and a combination of these in male rats on post-transcriptional mechanisms important for cognitive function and synaptic plasticity. Relationships between sleep architecture and translational regulators were also assessed.

Maternal depression and infant daytime cortisol.

The effect of maternal depressive disorder on infant daytime cortisol production was studied in three groups of infants; one group with mothers with comorbid depression and anxiety (n = 19), a second group with mothers with depression only (n = 7), and a third group with non-depressed mothers (n = 24). The infants' cortisol production pattern was measured when they were 6, 12, and 18 months old in combination with repeated measures of parenting stress and depression symptoms. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that infants of mothers with comorbid depression and anxiety had relatively higher cortisol production from morning to bedtime and higher bedtime values as compared to infants of non-depressed mothers and infants of depressed only mothers when they were 6 and 12 months old, but not when 18 months old.

Heart rate variability and cortisol responses during attentional and working memory tasks in naval cadets.

The aim of the paper was to study the relationship between heart rate variability (HRV) and cortisol release during cognitive challenging tasks. Forty-nine male naval cadets from the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy were administered computerised versions of attentional and working memory tests. The results from this study support the hypothesis of a negative correlation between HRV and cortisol secretion during cognitive tasks.

Higher levels of fatigue are associated with higher CRP levels in disease-free breast cancer survivors.

Objective: To investigate the associations between level of fatigue and various potential inflammatory biomarkers for fatigue after multivariate adjustments for possible confounders in a sample of 299 disease-free survivors of breast cancer (BCSs) at a mean of 4 years post diagnosis.

Methods: Medical record data were used for cancer-related information, and a follow-up mailed survey collected data on fatigue, depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms as well as information on demographics, physical health, medication and lifestyle. Blood samples drawn at an outpatient examination were analyzed for leukocyte count, high sensitivity C-reactive Protein (CRP), interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), interleukin-6 (IL-6), soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor type 1 (sTNF-R1) and neopterin.

Emotional stress and orthodontic tooth movement: effects on apical root resorption, tooth movement, and dental tissue expression of interleukin-1 alpha and calcitonin gene-related peptide immunoreactive nerve fibres in rats.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of emotional stress on apical root resorption (ARR) and tooth displacement during orthodontic tooth movement in rats. A further area of interest was to evaluate if the expression of interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1alpha) as well as the density and distribution of peptidergic nerve fibres immunoreactive to calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in the periodontal ligament (PDL) are associated with possible stress-induced changes in root resorption and tooth movement. A total of 52 male Wistar rats, aged 6 weeks, were divided in three experimental and one control group (n = 4).

Levels of circulating interleukin-1 receptor antagonist and C-reactive protein in long-term survivors of testicular cancer with chronic cancer-related fatigue.

Low-grade inflammatory responses may be related to the pathogenesis of cancer-related fatigue (CRF). We investigated circulating levels of various inflammatory markers in relation to chronic CRF (6 month duration) in Norwegian long-term survivors of testicular cancer (TCSs). We compared 92 TCSs with chronic CRF (cases) to 191 TCS without (controls) at median age 45 years (range 23-73), and median 11 years post-treatment (range 5-20).

A double exposure to social defeat induces sub-chronic effects on sleep and open field behaviour in rats.

Social defeat, resulting from the fight for a territory is based on the resident-intruder paradigm. A male rat intruder is placed in the territory of an older, bigger and more aggressive male resident and is defeated. In the present study, a double exposure to social defeat increased sleep fragmentation due to an increased amount of waking and slow-wave-sleep-1 (SWS-1) episodes.

Chronic cancer-related fatigue in long-term survivors of testicular cancer.

Objective: High prevalence of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) has been reported among many groups of cancer survivors when compared to the general population. However, this topic has rarely been studied in long-term survivors of testicular cancer (TCSs). The present multi-centre study examines the prevalence of chronic CRF in Norwegian TCSs compared to chronic general fatigue (GF) in the Norwegian general population, and associations between a variety of relevant variables and CRF in TCSs.

Extracellular levels of serotonin and GABA in the hippocampus after chronic mild stress in rats. A microdialysis study in an animal model of depression.

One of the most established hypotheses of depression focuses on alteration of the serotonergic (5-HT) function. Recent evidence suggests that serotonergic involvement in depression may be modulated by the action of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GABA). Furthermore, altered GABAergic function is also evident in depressed patients and in animal models of depression.