Corticotrophin releasing hormone

SUMMARY: Acute illness-related stress can result in severe hypercortisolism and bilateral adrenal enlargement in certain patients. We report a case of stress-induced hypercortisolism and bilateral adrenal enlargement in a patient admitted for acute respiratory distress and cardiogenic shock. Bilateral adrenal enlargement and hypercortisolism found during hospitalization for acute illness resolved 3 weeks later following the resolution of acute illness. Acute illness can be a precipitating factor for stress-induced hypercortisolism and bilateral adrenal enlargement...

Irritable Bowel syndrome (IBS) is a highly widespread gastrointestinal disorder whose symptomatology mainly affect the large intestine. Among the risk factors, psychosocial stress is the most acknowledged. The repeated water avoidance stress (rWAS) is considered an animal model of psychosocial stress that is capable of mimicking IBS. Otilonium bromide (OB), which is orally administered, concentrates in the large bowel and controls most of the IBS symptoms in humans. Several reports have shown that OB has multiple mechanisms of action and cellular targets...

Stress has a strong influence on mental health around the world. Decades of research has sought to identify mechanisms through which stress contributes to psychiatric disorders such as depression, to potentially guide the development of therapeutics targeting stress systems. The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis is the key endocrine system that is responsible for coordinating body-wide changes that are necessary for survival under stress, and much of the research aimed at understanding the mechanisms by which stress contributes to depression has focussed on HPA axis dysfunction...

The anterior pituitary is exposed to ultradian, circadian and stress-induced rhythms of circulating glucocorticoid hormones. Glucocorticoids feedback at the level of the pituitary corticotroph to control their own production through multiple mechanisms. This review highlights key insights from analysis of the dynamics of rapid and early glucocorticoid feedback that reveal both non-genomic and genomic mechanisms mediated by glucocorticoid receptors. Importantly, a common target is control of electrical excitability and calcium signalling although non-genomic effects may also involve control of hormone secretion distal to calcium signalling...

BACKGROUND: Maladaptation of the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis plays an important role in depression-like behaviour, but the specific molecular mechanisms are unknown. Here, we determined the roles of CRHR1 (corticotrophin releasing hormone receptor 1) and nectin3 in LPS (lipopolysaccharide)-induced depression-like behaviour in mice. METHODS: C57BL/6 male mice were intraperitoneally injected with LPS (0.83 g/kg), and the open field, novelty-suppressed feeding, forced swimming, and tail suspension tests were performed after intraperitoneal injections of saline or antalarmin (20 mg/kg)...

BACKGROUND: Pregnant Mexican Americans (hereafter called Latinas) and Black/African American women are at increased risk for psychological distress, contributing to preterm birth and low birthweight; acculturative stress combined with perceived stress elevates depressive symptoms in Latinas. Based on our prior research using a psychoneuroimmunology framework, we identified psychological and neuroendocrine risk factors as predictors of preterm birth in Latina women that are also identified as risk factors for Black/African American women...

PURPOSE: This prospective observational study aimed to determine whether serum oxytocin (OT) or corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) levels in the third trimester of pregnancy (or late pregnancy) could prospectively predict postpartum depression (PPD) at six weeks after childbirth. METHODS: We measured late pregnancy OT and CRH levels in Thai women, assessed depression using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and collected mothers, labor, and newborn data...

Preterm birth worldwide remains a significant cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Yet the exact mechanisms of preterm parturition remain unclear. Preterm birth is not a single condition, but rather a syndrome with a multifactorial etiology. This multifactorial nature explains why individual predictive measures for preterm birth have had limited sensitivity and specificity. One proposed pathway for preterm birth is via placentally synthesized corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH). CRH is a peptide hormone that increases exponentially in pregnancy and has been implicated in preterm birth due to its endocrine, autocrine, and paracrine roles...

In this systematic review with elements of meta-analytic approaches we employed publicly available Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets to determine the role of epigenetic mechanisms in prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE)-induced dysfunction of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functions in the offspring. Several studies have demonstrated that PAE has long-term consequences on HPA axis functions in the offspring. Reports of some of these studies determined that alcohol-induced epigenetic alterations during fetal development persist in adulthood...

Isofraxidin is an active component of several traditional and functional plants that have beneficial properties for neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we examined whether isofraxidin exhibited antidepressant-like effects in chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced mice. Firstly, isofraxidin could reverse CUMS-induced decrease in body weight gain in mice. Additionally, in the sucrose preference test (SPT), isofraxidin reversed the decrease in sucrose consumption due to CUMS-induced depressive-like behavior...

Numerous studies on humans and animals have indicated that the corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) stimulate both individually and synergistically secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) by corticotropic cells in anterior pituitary. With aim to characterize and better comprehend the mechanisms underlying the effects of AVP on Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis ultradian dynamics, AVP is here incorporated into our previously proposed stoichiometric model of HPA axis in humans...

Early-life adversity (ELA) is known to alter brain circuit maturation as well as increase vulnerability to cognitive and emotional disorders. However, the importance of examining sex as a biological variable when researching the effects of ELA has not been considered until recently. This perspective discusses the sex-specific behavioral outcomes of ELA in both humans and animal models, then proposes microglia-mediated mechanisms as a potential underlying cause. Recent work in rodent models suggests that ELA provokes cognitive deficits, anhedonia, and alcohol abuse primarily in males, whereas females exhibit greater risk-taking and opioid addiction-related behaviors...

The dorsal hippocampus is involved in behavioral avoidance regulation. It is unclear how experiences such as the neonatal stress of maternal deprivation (MD) and post-weaning environmental enrichment (EE) affect avoidance behavior and the dorsal hippocampal parameters, including neuronal morphology, corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) signaling, and oxytocin receptor (OTR) level. In male BALB/c mice, we found that MD impaired avoidance behavior in the step-on test compared to non-MD and EE rearing conditions could alleviate that partially...

BACKGROUND: Oxytocin, secreted by oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus, is an endogenous neuropeptide involved in modulating multiple sensory information processing pathways, and its roles in the brain have been associated with prosocial, maternal, and feeding-related behaviors. Visual information is necessary for initiating these behaviors, with the retina consisting of the first stage in the visual system mediating external stimulus perception. Oxytocin has been detected in the mammalian retina; however, the expression and possible function of oxytocin receptors (OxtR) in the retina remain unknown...

Background: Stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD), is the most common histological type of gastric cancer (GC) with high mortality and poor prognosis. We sought to investigate the contribution of Notch receptor 1 ( NOTCH1 ) to STAD immunity. Methods: The profiles of immune cells in STAD cohorts were compared, and a correlation analysis between the NOTCH1 gene and tumor immune cell infiltration was then conducted. The immune-related genes (IRGs) associated with the NOTCH1 gene were identified...

Exposure to ammonia can cause convulsions, coma, and death. In this study, we investigate the effects of ammonia exposure on immunoregulatory and neuroendocrine changes in Takifugu rubripes. Fish were sampled at 0, 12, 24, 48, and 96 h following exposure to different ammonia concentrations (0, 5, 50, 100, and 150 mg/L). Our results showed that exposure to ammonia significantly reduced the concentrations of C3, C4, IgM, and LZM whereas the heat shock protein 70 and 90 levels significantly increased. In addition, the transcription levels of Mn-SOD, CAT, GRx, and GR in the liver were significantly upregulated following exposure to low ammonia concertation, however, downregulated with increased exposure time...

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) combined with medication therapy in preventing the recurrence of major depressive disorder (MDD) in convalescent patients. Methods: A total of 130 patients with convalescent MDD were enrolled in this prospective study. Sixty-five patients were assigned to the experimental group and received medication therapy combined with MBCT, and 65 patients were assigned to the control group and treated with medication alone...

Because of the high prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) and the suffering involved, early diagnosis is urgent; however, current screening tools and diagnosis are inadequate. In addition to conventional methods such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and clinical interviews, several hormones in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, such as corticotrophin-releasing hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and cortisol, have been considered because of their critical roles in stress regulation in the mothers...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the hormone and anxiety levels of rat dams who were exposed to prenatal and maternal separation stress paradigms. Sprague-Dawley rat dams were divided into Prenatal Stress (PS), Maternal Separation (MS), Prenatal Stress and Maternal Separation (PS+MS), and Control (C) groups. All animals were subjected to the open field test on the 21st postnatal day. Same-day blood samples were obtained from the tail vein in order to examine corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), estradiol, oxytocin, epinephrine, norepinephrine, prolactin, progesterone, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), endorphin, and vasopressin levels of animals via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)...

Previous studies have shown that 3-day d-amphetamine (AMPH) treatment effectively induced conditioned place preferences (CPP) and impaired pair bonding behaviors in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Using this established animal model and treatment regimen, we examined the effects of the demonstrated threshold rewarding dose of AMPH on various behaviors and their potential underlying neurochemical systems in the brain of female prairie voles. Our data show that 3-day AMPH injections (0.2 mg/kg/day) impaired social recognition and decreased depressive-like behavior in females without affecting their locomotion and anxiety-like behaviors...