Possible involvement of integrin signaling pathway in the process of recovery from restraint stress in rats.

Objective: To search novel genes or pathways involved in the recovery process after restraint stress in rats.

Methods: We compared the hypothalamus transcriptional profiles of two different recovery patterns (fast recovery vs slow recovery) from restraint stress in rats using oligonucleotide microarray, the recovery pattern was determined by the decrement of plasma adrenocorticotropic-hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone levels during one hour recovery period after stress. A real-time quantitative RT-PCR was applied to validate the differential expressed genes.