Dagnino-Subiabre Alexies, Zepeda-Carreño Rodrigo, Díaz-Véliz Gabriela, Mora Sergio, Aboitiz Francisco
Department of Psychiatry and Center for Medical Research, Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Ave. Marcoleta N 387, piso 2, Casilla 114-D, Santiago 1, Chile.
Brain Res. 2006 May 1;1086(1):27-34. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2006.02.118. Epub 2006 Apr 13.
Chronic stress affects brain areas involved in learning and emotional responses. These alterations have been related with the development of cognitive deficits in major depression. Moreover, stress induces deleterious actions on the epithalamic pineal organ, a gland involved in a wide range of physiological functions. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the stress effects on the pineal gland are related with changes in the expression of neurotrophic factors and cell adhesion molecules. Using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot, we analyzed the effect of chronic immobilization stress on the BDNF mRNA and integrin alpha5 expression in the rat pineal gland. We found that BDNF is produced in situ in the pineal gland. Chronic immobilization stress induced upregulation of BDNF mRNA and integrin alpha5 expression in the rat pineal gland but did not produce changes in beta-actin mRNA or in GAPDH expression. Stressed animals also evidenced an increase in anxiety-like behavior and acute gastric lesions. These results suggest that BDNF and integrin alpha5 may have a counteracting effect to the deleterious actions of immobilization stress on functionally stimulated pinealocytes. Furthermore, this study proposes that the pineal gland may be a target of glucocorticoid damage during stress.
慢性应激会影响参与学习和情绪反应的脑区。这些改变与重度抑郁症中认知缺陷的发展有关。此外，应激会对松果体产生有害作用，松果体是一个参与多种生理功能的腺体。本研究的目的是调查应激对松果体的影响是否与神经营养因子和细胞黏附分子表达的变化有关。我们使用逆转录-聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）和蛋白质印迹法，分析了慢性束缚应激对大鼠松果体中脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）mRNA和整合素α5表达的影响。我们发现BDNF在松果体中是原位产生的。慢性束缚应激诱导大鼠松果体中BDNF mRNA和整合素α5表达上调，但未引起β-肌动蛋白mRNA或甘油醛-3-磷酸脱氢酶（GAPDH）表达的变化。应激动物还表现出焦虑样行为增加和急性胃损伤。这些结果表明，BDNF和整合素α5可能对束缚应激对功能受刺激的松果体细胞的有害作用具有拮抗作用。此外，本研究提出，松果体可能是应激期间糖皮质激素损伤的靶点。
