Herringa Ryan J, Nanda Steven A, Hsu David T, Roseboom Patrick H, Kalin Ned H
Neuroscience Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Brain Res Mol Brain Res. 2004 Nov 24;131(1-2):17-25. doi: 10.1016/j.molbrainres.2004.08.005.
Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is a key mediator of the behavioral, autonomic, and endocrine responses to stress. CRF binds two receptors and a CRF-binding protein (CRF-BP), which may inactivate or modulate the actions of CRF at its receptors. The amygdala is an important anatomical substrate for CRF and contains CRF, its receptors, and CRF-BP. Few studies have examined the effects of acute stress on the regulation of amygdala CRF-BP with other CRF system genes. Therefore, we examined the time course of the effects of acute restraint stress on central (CeA) and basolateral (BLA) amygdala CRF system genes. Consistent with our previous study, acute stress increased BLA CRF-BP mRNA shortly after stress offset. Surprisingly, BLA CRF-BP mRNA remained elevated up to 21 h after the stressor. This effect was selective in the BLA as stress did not alter CeA CRF-BP mRNA, and there were no changes in CRF or CRF receptor mRNAs in either amygdala nucleus. These results suggest that alterations in BLA CRF-BP gene expression are a primary response of the BLA/CeA CRF system to acute stress. Because CRF-BP can modulate CRF action, changes in amygdala CRF-BP levels after stress exposure may affect the ability of an organism to adapt to future stressors.
促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子（CRF）是对应激的行为、自主神经和内分泌反应的关键介质。CRF与两种受体以及一种CRF结合蛋白（CRF-BP）结合，后者可能会使CRF在其受体处的作用失活或进行调节。杏仁核是CRF的重要解剖学底物，含有CRF、其受体和CRF-BP。很少有研究考察急性应激对杏仁核CRF-BP与其他CRF系统基因调控的影响。因此，我们研究了急性束缚应激对中央杏仁核（CeA）和基底外侧杏仁核（BLA）CRF系统基因影响的时间进程。与我们之前的研究一致，急性应激在应激结束后不久增加了BLA中CRF-BP mRNA的水平。令人惊讶的是，应激源作用后长达21小时，BLA中CRF-BP mRNA水平仍保持升高。这种效应在BLA中具有选择性，因为应激并未改变CeA中CRF-BP mRNA的水平，且两个杏仁核核团中的CRF或CRF受体mRNA均无变化。这些结果表明，BLA中CRF-BP基因表达的改变是BLA/CeA CRF系统对急性应激的主要反应。由于CRF-BP可以调节CRF的作用，应激暴露后杏仁核CRF-BP水平的变化可能会影响生物体适应未来应激源的能力。
