[Neurochemical and morphological studies of hypothalamic structures in stress].

Using cytospectrophotometric as well as cyto- and karyometric techniques, we measured neuronal volumes of the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus of white rats exposed to hypokinesia of varying duration. Also, we measured RNA and total protein in those structures. It was found that at early stages of hypokinesia accompanied by the stress-reaction neurosecretory cells of the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei were asynchronously involved in the organization of the reaction. The effects detected in the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei during prolonged hypokinesia differed significantly from the above affects which seems to be associated with adaptive changes in the structures described.