stress response tagged posts

The skeletal muscles of men and women process glucose and fats in different ways. A study conducted by the University Hospital of Tübingen, the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of Helmholtz Munich and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) e.V. provides the first comprehensive molecular analysis of these differences. The results, published in Molecular Metabolism, possibly give an explanation for why metabolic diseases such as diabetes manifest differently in women and men—and why they respond differently to physical activity.

Skeletal muscles are far more than just “movement driving motors...

This confocal image shows the mossy cell commissural projections (red) and neural stem cells (in green) in the adult mouse dentate gyrus region of the brain.
Credit: Song Lab, UNC School of Medicine

Scientists showed that ‘mossy cells’ in the hippocampus regulate local stem cells to control their production of new neurons, which is important for normal learning and memory, stress response, and mood regulation. Such neurogenesis in the adult brain is disrupted in many common conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury, and some forms of epilepsy.

Targeting mossy cells to reverse such disruption may therefore offer a new strategy for treating these conditions”The hope is we could manipulate even a small number of mossy cells to restore ...

Japanese macaques are exposed to stress during rank fights. Credit: Konstanze Meindl Hightlights: A putative COMT splice mutant (HT3) was associated with increased cortisol excretion. •This haplotype was widely distributed among males. •Cortisol excretion was inversely correlated with physical aggression. •No correlation between cortisol and social rank was found.

Certain genes, such as the COMT gene, are thought to play a role in determining our stress response. Researchers have now studied this gene in macaques, a genus of Old World monkeys, and for the first time have shown that a specific variant of the gene is associated with higher excretion of the stress hormone cortisol. The gene variant may also influence social rank among the animals.

Animals that live in groups face a vari...