Endocrine Abstracts

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The regular performance of exercise has beneficial effects on autonomic control, metabolism, immune and brain function. To increase our understanding of the beneficial effects of exercise on stress coping we investigated changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and behaviour in mice and rats that had been voluntarily exercising since 4 weeks. If given a running wheel in their home cage, rodents such as mice and (Sprague Dawley) rats run spontaneously. Th...

Corticotropin Releasing Hormone (CRH) is the hypothalamic mediator of the stress response that ultimately results in increased release of glucocorticoid. CRH exerts its effects by binding to the CRH receptors 1 and 2 that belong to the family of the GPCRs. As we and others have shown in rodent and human tissues, peripherally expressed CRH is a potent proinflammatory factor. The immunomodulatory effects of CRH are exerted by its activation of the NF-κB DNA binding activity...

Skeletal muscle is the principal tissue responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose disposal and is thus the major site of peripheral insulin resistance. Urocortin 2 (Ucn-2), a corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) family member and the type 2 CRF receptor (CRFR2) are highly expressed in skeletal muscle. To determine the physiological role of Ucn-2, we generated mice deficient in this peptide. Using glucose and insulin tolerance tests and hyperinsulinemic euglycemic glucose clam...