The role of the hippocampal mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis of the aged Fisher rat.

The aging process has been frequently associated with hippocampal neurodegeneration, loss of corticosteroid receptors, and, at the same time, dysfunction of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. We were interested in characterizing simultaneously the activity of the HPA axis and status of both corticosteroid receptors (mineralocorticoid or MR and glucocorticoid or GR) in the hippocampus of aged male Fisher-344 rats. We compared intact, adrenalectomized (ADX), and corticosterone-replaced ADX young (5-6 months) and old (26-27 months) rats, examining all the parameters in the same animals. Aged rats exhibited an unaltered basal rhythm and initial corticosterone response to restraint stress. However, the same old animals showed a delayed turn-off of the stress response and did so at different points of the corticosterone circadian cycle. The aged hippocampus showed a 40-50% lower MR and GR binding under all the conditions studied. This aging effect was not attributable to changes in the kinetics, affinity, or nuclear translocation of MR or GR. Intact aged rats exhibited also a 30-40% reduction of hippocampal MR and GR steady-state mRNA levels. Interestingly, after 36 h ADX only the aged hippocampus showed upregulation of MR and GR mRNA content to levels comparable to those in young rats. However, this increase in MR and GR mRNA content was not accompanied by a proportional increase in the Bmax of these receptors, suggesting age-related translational or post-translational alterations. Moreover, corticosterone replacement was able to reverse the ADX-induced increase of MR and GR Bmax in young and old hippocampi but it only reversed the upregulated mRNA levels of MR (and not GR) in the older group. The fact that corticosterone was able to modulate the biosynthetic rate of MR and GR strongly suggests that the decrease of receptors is functional and not simply due to cell death in the aged hippocampus. We propose that in the aged Fisher rat the loss of hippocampal corticosteroid receptors is previous to any change in the circadian rhythm of circulating corticosterone. Furthermore, the altered turn-off of the corticosterone stress response observed in the same animals may be related to the reduction of functional MR and GR but it is not due to high basal levels of corticosterone.