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Full-Text Articles in Physiology
Maternal Sleep Loss During Fetal Development Alters Offspring Endocrine Responses To Stress Throughout Life, Audrey Brown
Maternal Sleep Loss During Fetal Development Alters Offspring Endocrine Responses To Stress Throughout Life, Audrey Brown
Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis releases glucocorticoids, including corticosterone (CORT), in response to stress. CORT then negatively feeds back to inhibit its own production by binding to glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. The HPA axis is subject to “programming” by abnormal stimuli during early development, which may permanently alter how the HPA axis responds to stress. These altered responses have been linked to an increased risk for human psychiatric and metabolic disorders in later life, but the mechanism by which this happens is not fully understood. This study tests the hypothesis that changes to GR expression patterns …