Abstract
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its end-effectors glucocorticoid hormones play central roles in the adaptive response to numerous stressors that can be either internal or external. Thus, this system has a strong impact on the brain hippocampus and its major functions, such as cognition, memory as well as behavior, and mood. The hippocampal area of the adult brain contains neural stem cells or more committed neural progenitor cells, which retain throughout the human life the ability of self-renewal and to differentiate into multiple neural cell lineages, such as neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Importantly, these characteristic cells contribute significantly to the above-indicated functions of the hippocampus, while various stressors and glucocorticoids influence proliferation, differentiation, and fate of these cells. This review offers an overview of the current understanding on the interactions between the HPA axis/glucocorticoid stress-responsive system and hippocampal neural progenitor cells by focusing on the actions of glucocorticoids. Also addressed is a further discussion on the implications of such interactions to the pathophysiology of mood disorders.
Highlights
Humans face in their daily activities unpredicted short- and long-term stressful events called stressors, which are either internal or external (Chrousos, 2009)
The brain hippocampus and its associated dentate gyrus, part of the limbic system located in the temporal lobe, consist of the central nervous system (CNS) circuitry that organizes adaptive response to stress through communicating with other brain areas, such as the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus and prefrontal cortex (Jonas and Lisman, 2014)
Neural stem cells (NSCs) or neural progenitor cells that retain a potential of self-renewal and an ability to differentiate into multiple neural component cells, are identified in the hippocampal dentate gyrus
Summary
Division of Experimental Biology, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Doha, Qatar. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its end-effectors glucocorticoid hormones play central roles in the adaptive response to numerous stressors that can be either internal or external This system has a strong impact on the brain hippocampus and its major functions, such as cognition, memory as well as behavior, and mood. The hippocampal area of the adult brain contains neural stem cells or more committed neural progenitor cells, which retain throughout the human life the ability of self-renewal and to differentiate into multiple neural cell lineages, such as neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes These characteristic cells contribute significantly to the above-indicated functions of the hippocampus, while various stressors and glucocorticoids influence proliferation, differentiation, and fate of these cells.
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