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Metaplasticity of amygdalar responses to the stress hormone corticosterone.

ABSTRACT: High levels of corticosteroids (as circulate after stress) quickly and reversibly enhance hippocampal glutamatergic transmission via nongenomic actions requiring mineralocorticoid receptors. Subsequently, the hormone slowly and long-lastingly normalizes hippocampal cell function, through nuclear glucocorticoid receptors. Here we describe a rapid mineralocorticoid receptor-dependent enhancement of glutamatergic transmission in basolateral amygdala neurons. Contrary to the hippocampus, this rapid enhancement is long-lasting, potentially allowing an extended window for encoding of emotional aspects during stressful events. Importantly, the long-lasting change in state of amygdala neurons greatly affects the responsiveness to subsequent surges of corticosterone, revealing a quick suppression of glutamatergic transmission, which requires the glucocorticoid receptor. Responses of basolateral amygdala neurons to the stress hormone corticosterone can thus switch from excitatory to inhibitory, depending on the recent stress history of the organism.

SUBMITTER: Karst H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2922581 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Metaplasticity of amygdalar responses to the stress hormone corticosterone.

Karst Henk H Berger Stefan S Erdmann Gitta G Schütz Günther G Joëls Marian M

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20100727 32

High levels of corticosteroids (as circulate after stress) quickly and reversibly enhance hippocampal glutamatergic transmission via nongenomic actions requiring mineralocorticoid receptors. Subsequently, the hormone slowly and long-lastingly normalizes hippocampal cell function, through nuclear glucocorticoid receptors. Here we describe a rapid mineralocorticoid receptor-dependent enhancement of glutamatergic transmission in basolateral amygdala neurons. Contrary to the hippocampus, this rapid ...[more]

PMID: 20663957

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Project description:Since animal experiments cannot be completely avoided, the pain, suffering, and distress of laboratory animals must be minimized. To this end, a major prerequisite is reliable assessment of pain and distress. Usually, evaluation of animal welfare is done by visual inspection and score sheets. However, relatively little is known about whether standardized, but subjective, score sheets are able to reliably reflect the status of the animals. The current study aimed to compare visual assessment scores and changes in body weight with concentrations of fecal corticosterone metabolites (FCMs) in a neuroscientific experimental setup. Additionally, effects of refinement procedures were investigated. Eight male adult Sprague-Dawley rats underwent several experimental interventions, including electroencephalograph electrode implantation and subsequent recording, positron emission tomography (PET), and sleep deprivation (SD) by motorized activity wheels. Additional 16 rats were either used as controls without any treatment or to evaluate refinement strategies. Stress responses were determined on a daily basis by means of measuring FCMs, body weight, and evaluation of the animals' welfare by standardized score sheets. Surgery provoked a significant elevation of FCM levels for up to five days. Increases in FCMs due to PET procedures or SD in activity wheels were also highly significant, while visual assessment scores did not indicate elevated stress levels and body weights remained constant. Visual assessment scores correlate with neither changes in body weight nor increases in FCM levels. Habituation procedures to activity wheels used for SD had no impact on corticosterone release. Our results revealed that actual score sheets for visual assessment of animal welfare did not mirror physiological stress responses assessed by FCM measurements. Moreover, small changes in body weight did not correlate with FCM concentration either. In conclusion, as visual assessment is a method allowing immediate interventions on suffering animals to alleviate burden, timely stress assessment in experimental rodents via score sheets should be ideally complemented by validated objective measures (e.g., fecal FCM measured by well-established assays for reliable detection of FCMs). This will complete a comprehensive appraisal of the animals' welfare status in a retrospective manner and refine stressor procedures in the long run.

Dataset Information

Metaplasticity of amygdalar responses to the stress hormone corticosterone.

Publications

Metaplasticity of amygdalar responses to the stress hormone corticosterone.

Similar Datasets

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