Journal
MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR ENDOCRINOLOGY
Volume 521, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.mce.2020.111125
Keywords
Early stress; Animal models; Rodents; HPA circuit
Categories
Funding
- Zardi-Gori Foundation for Lucy Babicola research fellowship
- Sapienza Universita di Roma, Ateneo 2020 [RM120172B7A3A801]
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Adaptation to environmental challenges is crucial for survival, requiring integration of external cues and internal signals. The Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis plays a central role, affecting balance between sensorial, emotional, and cognitive processing areas. Early life stress has long-lasting effects on brain areas, depending on complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors.
Adaptation to environmental challenges represents a critical process for survival, requiring the complex integration of information derived from both external cues and internal signals regarding current conditions and previous experiences. The Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis plays a central role in this process inducing the activation of a neuroendocrine signaling cascade that affects the delicate balance of activity and cross-talk between areas that are involved in sensorial, emotional, and cognitive processing such as the hippocampus, amygdala, Prefrontal Cortex, Ventral Tegmental Area, and dorsal raphe. Early life stress, especially early critical experiences with caregivers, influences the functional and structural organization of these areas, affects these processes in a long-lasting manner and may result in long-term maladaptive and psychopathological outcomes, depending on the complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. This review summarizes the results of studies that have modeled this early postnatal stress in rodents during the first 2 postnatal weeks, focusing on the long-term effects on molecular and structural alteration in brain areas involved in Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function. Moreover, a brief investigation of epigenetic mechanisms and specific genetic targets mediating the long-term effects of these early environmental manipulations and at the basis of differential neurobiological and behavioral effects during adulthood is provided.
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