Activitat endocrina i central del CRF en soques consanguínies de rata. Implicacions en la depressió

Despite the various hypothesis about biological basis of depression, we do not yet know the physiological alterations responsible for this pathology. Since the most consistent biological alterations in depression are probably those related to the pituitary-adrenal axis and CRF, and depression has an important genetic basis, in the present project the activity of the pituitary-adrenal axis and the activity of CRF will be studied in the CNS of five inbred strains of rats already characterized by their behavior in the forced swim test (a putative animal model of depression). The pituitary-adrenal function will be evaluated by: 1) its response to CRF administration and to stressors, 2) the efficacy of corticosterone to inhibit the axis, and 3) the quantification of the glucocorticoids receptors type I and II and their mRNA (in pituitary, hypothalamus and hippocampus). The central activity of