Stressor-Specific Activation of Catecholaminergic Systems: Implications for Stress-Related Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical Responses

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Responses of central catecholaminergic systems as well as the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (HPA) axis vary during exposure to different stressors. Extracellular norepinephrine (NE) levels in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) increase markedly with immobilization (IMMO) or with formalin (FORM)-induced pain and relatively little with insulin (INS)-induced hypoglycemia, cold (COLD) stress, or hemorrhage (HEM). Levels of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, a metabolite of dopamine, increase in the locus ceruleus with IMMO or ether but are unchanged during INS-induced hypoglycemia. These and other findings have led to the hypothesis of the existence of stressor-specific central noradrenergic pathways participating in regulation of the HPA axis. In the study described in this chapter, conscious rats have been exposed to one of several stressors-HEM, i.v. INS, s.c. FORM, COLD, or IMMO. Fos immunoreactivity of the immediate early gene c-fos was used to investigate changes in the activity of brain stem neurons. The results were correlated with previous findings about stress-induced central noradrenergic activation in the PVN using in vivo microdialysis and simultaneous measurements of plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels. The present results indicate that the magnitude of activation of c-fos in brain catecholaminergic regions and of PVN corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) neurons varies widely across stressors. The findings support the notion of stressor-specificity of responses of central catecholaminergic systems and the HPA axis and indicate that different central pathways regulate HPA reactivity.