A users guide to HPA axis research.
TL;DR: This Users Guide is intended to provide a fundamental overview of conceptual, technical and practical knowledge that will assist individuals who engage in and evaluate HPA axis research.
About: This article is published in Physiology & Behavior.The article was published on 2017-09-01 and is currently open access. It has received 261 citations till now.
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TL;DR: The current literature review includes an extensive collection of papers and evaluation of the literature on faecal cortisol/corticosterone metabolite (FCM) analysis published to date to give reference for researchers interested in implementing FCM analysis into their study or seeking to improve such methods by providing background knowledge on GC metabolism and excretion.
330 citations
27 Apr 2017
TL;DR: Interactions of biological disturbances with behavioral and societal factors shape the effects of shift work on health and well-being, and research is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms and drive the development of countermeasures.
Abstract: Our 24/7 society is dependent on shift work, despite mounting evidence for negative health outcomes from sleep displacement due to shift work. This paper reviews short- and long-term health consequences of sleep displacement and circadian misalignment due to shift work. We focus on four broad health domains: metabolic health, risk of cancer, cardiovascular health, and mental health. Circadian misalignment affects these domains by inducing sleep deficiency, sympathovagal and hormonal imbalance, inflammation, impaired glucose metabolism, and dysregulated cell cycles. This leads to a range of medical conditions, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, gastrointestinal dysfunction, compromised immune function, cardiovascular disease, excessive sleepiness, mood and social disorders, and increased cancer risk. Interactions of biological disturbances with behavioral and societal factors shape the effects of shift work on health and well-being. Research is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms and drive the development of countermeasures.
252 citations
DSM1
TL;DR: Evidence demonstrating how the gut microbiome may affect brain function in adults, thereby having an impact on stress, anxiety, depression, and cognition is explored.
Abstract: It has become increasingly evident in recent years that the gut microbiome and the brain communicate in a bidirectional manner, with each possibly affecting the other's functions. Substantial research has aimed to understand the mechanisms of this interaction and to outline strategies for preventing or treating nervous system-related disturbances. This review explores the evidence demonstrating how the gut microbiome may affect brain function in adults, thereby having an impact on stress, anxiety, depression, and cognition. In vitro, in vivo, and human studies reporting an association between a change in the gut microbiome and functional changes in the brain are highlighted, as are studies outlining the mechanisms by which the brain affects the microbiome and the gastrointestinal tract. Possible modes of action to explain how the gut microbiome and the brain functionally affect each other are proposed. Supplemental probiotics to combat brain-related dysfunction offer a promising approach, provided future research elucidates their mode of action and possible side effects. Further studies are warranted to establish how pre- and probiotic interventions may help to balance brain function in healthy and diseased individuals.
193 citations
Cites background from "A users guide to HPA axis research...."
...sponse to stress in addition to other metabolic and immune-related functions.(66) Finally, the role of the immune system in...
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TL;DR: Zebrafish have become a powerful tool in neuroscience research due to their genetic tractability, molecular/physiological conservation, small body size, ease of experimental manipulations in vivo, and rich behavioral repertoire.
181 citations
Cites background from "A users guide to HPA axis research...."
...Exposure to repeated stress contributes, as the major risk factor, to various CNS disorders, accompanied by robust changes in both basal and stress-evoked glucocorticoids (Moreno-Peral et al., 2014; Spencer and Deak, 2016)....
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...ACTH promotes the secretion of cortisol from the adrenal cortex in humans and some mammals, whereas in rats, mice, birds and most reptiles, the ‘main’ stress hormone is corticosterone (Li and Hu, 2016; Lv et al., 2015; Spencer and Deak, 2016)....
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...ACTH promotes the secretion of cortisol from the adrenal cortex in humans and some mammals, whereas in rats, mice, birds and most reptiles, the ‘main’ stress hormone is corticosterone (Li and Hu, 2016; Lv et al., 2015; Spencer and Deak, 2016)....
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TL;DR: Pituitary effects of IL-1 suggest that this monokine may be an important regulator of the metabolic adaptations to infectious stressors.
Abstract: Exposure to bacterial endotoxins has long been known to stimulate the release of anterior pituitary hormones; administration of endotoxin was at one time a common clinical test of anterior pituitary function. Endotoxin is a potent stimulus for production of the endogenous pyrogenic protein, interleukin-1 (IL-1), by macrophages and monocytes. The possibility that IL-1 has a direct effect on the secretion of hormones by rat pituitary cells in a monolayer culture was investigated. Recombinant human IL-1 beta stimulated the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone, luteinizing hormone, growth hormone, and thyroid-stimulating hormone. Increased hormone secretion into culture supernatants was found with IL-1 concentrations ranging from 10(-9) M to 10(-12) M. Prolactin secretion by the monolayers was inhibited by similar doses. These concentrations of IL-1 are within the range reported for IL-1 in serum, suggesting that IL-1 generated peripherally by mononuclear immune cells may act directly on anterior pituitary cells to modulate hormone secretion in vivo. Incubation of IL-1 solutions with antibody to IL-1 neutralized these actions. These pituitary effects of IL-1 suggest that this monokine may be an important regulator of the metabolic adaptations to infectious stressors.
169 citations
References
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TL;DR: This research presents a new probabilistic procedure called ‘spot-spot analysis’ to characterize the response of the immune system to the presence of E.coli.
6,818 citations
"A users guide to HPA axis research...." refers background in this paper
...Both receptors are members of the nuclear hormone receptor gene family and they function as hormone-dependent transcription factors (133)....
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TL;DR: This review considers recent findings regarding GC action and generates criteria for determining whether a particular GC action permits, stimulates, or suppresses an ongoing stress-response or, as an additional category, is preparative for a subsequent stressor.
Abstract: The secretion of glucocorticoids (GCs) is a classic endocrine response to stress. Despite that, it remains controversial as to what purpose GCs serve at such times. One view, stretching back to the time of Hans Selye, posits that GCs help mediate the ongoing or pending stress response, either via basal levels of GCs permitting other facets of the stress response to emerge efficaciously, and/or by stress levels of GCs actively stimulating the stress response. In contrast, a revisionist viewpoint posits that GCs suppress the stress response, preventing it from being pathologically overactivated. In this review, we consider recent findings regarding GC action and, based on them, generate criteria for determining whether a particular GC action permits, stimulates, or suppresses an ongoing stressresponse or, as an additional category, is preparative for a subsequent stressor. We apply these GC actions to the realms of cardiovascular function, fluid volume and hemorrhage, immunity and inflammation, metabolism, neurobiology, and reproductive physiology. We find that GC actions fall into markedly different categories, depending on the physiological endpoint in question, with evidence for mediating effects in some cases, and suppressive or preparative in others. We then attempt to assimilate these heterogeneous GC actions into a physiological whole. (Endocrine Reviews 21: 55‐ 89, 2000)
6,707 citations
"A users guide to HPA axis research...." refers background in this paper
...There are many physiological processes that depend on the “permissive” effects of basal CORT for their normal operation (3,192)....
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...INTRODUCTION Glucocorticoid hormones are powerful regulators of all mammalian physiological systems including the central nervous system (1-3)....
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01 Jan 1956
TL;DR: In this paper, the discovery of stress, the dissection of stress the disease of adaptation sketch for a unified theory implications and applications is described, and the authors propose a unified framework for adaptation.
Abstract: The discovery of stress the dissection of stress the disease of adaptation sketch for a unified theory implications and applications.
5,551 citations
TL;DR: As an adjunct to pharmaceutical therapy, social and behavioral interventions such as regular physical activity and social support reduce the chronic stress burden and benefit brain and body health and resilience.
Abstract: The brain is the key organ of the response to stress because it determines what is threatening and, therefore, potentially stressful, as well as the physiological and behavioral responses which can be either adaptive or damaging. Stress involves two-way communication between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune, and other systems via neural and endocrine mechanisms. Beyond the "flight-or-fight" response to acute stress, there are events in daily life that produce a type of chronic stress and lead over time to wear and tear on the body ("allostatic load"). Yet, hormones associated with stress protect the body in the short-run and promote adaptation ("allostasis"). The brain is a target of stress, and the hippocampus was the first brain region, besides the hypothalamus, to be recognized as a target of glucocorticoids. Stress and stress hormones produce both adaptive and maladaptive effects on this brain region throughout the life course. Early life events influence life-long patterns of emotionality and stress responsiveness and alter the rate of brain and body aging. The hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex undergo stress-induced structural remodeling, which alters behavioral and physiological responses. As an adjunct to pharmaceutical therapy, social and behavioral interventions such as regular physical activity and social support reduce the chronic stress burden and benefit brain and body health and resilience.
3,062 citations
TL;DR: It is proposed that stress-induced increases in glucocorticoid levels protect not against the source of stress itself but rather against the body's normal reactions to stress, preventing those reactions from overshooting and themselves threatening homeostasis.
Abstract: Introduction and Background Modern glucocorticoid endocrinology is a colorful, richly varied, but formless discipline—a profusion of cellular, physiological and pharmacological effects, seemingly unrelated through any central hormonal function. A current list of glucocorticoid effects might include such disparate items as stimulation of hepatic gluconeogenesis, inhibition of glucose uptake by peripheral tissues, suppression of inflammation, enhanced excretion of a water load, induction in various cells of tryptophan oxygenase and glutamine synthetase, suppression of numerous immune reactions, inhibition of secretion of several hormones and neuropeptides, and inhibition of activity of plasminogen activator and other neutral proteinases. Judging from recent writings on glucocorticoid physiology, an item that might be low on the list or missing altogether is “increased resistance to stress”.
3,050 citations
"A users guide to HPA axis research...." refers background in this paper
...INTRODUCTION Glucocorticoid hormones are powerful regulators of all mammalian physiological systems including the central nervous system (1-3)....
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