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Endocrine cells provide rapid response to stress
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Certain cells in the anterior pituitary can react much more quickly to stress than previously believed, according to researchers in Germany.
Soojin Ryu, PhD, researcher at the German Resilience Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and colleagues have discovered that corticotrophs, which produce stress hormones, can rapidly influence avoidance behaviors immediately after the onset of a stressor in the environment, according to a news release from the university.
It is known that hormones have a stress-regulating function, but the process was thought to be slower. These new findings suggest that the process is almost immediate.
The researchers studied this mechanism in zebrafish larva, which they genetically modified to manipulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis using light. From this they observed changes and reactions of the cells — the corticotropic cells in the pituitary became directly active when a stressful situation was presented.
Researchers suggest these findings could be used to develop treatments for management of acute stress-induced reactions or even to alleviate acute stress-related conditions.