Role of nitric oxide synthases and beta-adrenoceptors in cardiac tissue of rats submitted to stress with access to Comfort food

• Grant number: 12/21990-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2013
• End date: October 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - General Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Regina Celia Spadari
• Grantee: Regina Celia Spadari
• Host Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms related to stress response occupies the attention of scientists and clinicians since the definition of the term stress by the endocrinologist Hans Selye in 1936. It is believed that at least one third of the diseases that lead people to seek medical care are related to stress. The current conditions of life in the Western world represent a major cause of stress in humans, the called psychosocial stress, caused by the accelerated process of urbanization and changing lifestyles. The endocrine stress response in humans and animals includes the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), which stimulates the secretion of glucocorticoids by the adrenal cortex, and activation of the sympathetic nervous system-adrenal medulla that stimulates the release of catecholamines. The relationship between these two systems is of great physiological importance. In general, steroids hormones induce the refinement or the regulation of processes mediated by catecholamines. Authors proposed that glucocorticoids stimulate the consumption of high-calorie foods that, in turn, would protect the HPA axis dysfunction associated with stress, depression and anxiety. In this study we investigated the behavior of animals with chronic mild stress and unpredictable (CMSU) with access to comfort diet compared with the behavioral data of rats subjected to foot-shock stress on the same diet. Rats subjected to foot-shock stress have been used as experimental models to investigate adaptative mechanisms mainly in the cardiovascular system. Those animals present increased secretion of glucocorticoids, which interact with their receptors and regulate the expression of genes, including those codifying beta-adrenoceptors and nitric oxide synthases (NOS), thus affecting the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO), a signaling molecule that regulates a variety of cardiovascular functions. In this study we analyzed in cardiac tissue, the involvement of adrenoceptors beta and isoforms of NOS in adaptative processes triggered by foot-shock stress and CMSU in rats fed with comfort food. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SPADARI, REGINA CELIA; CAVADAS, CLAUDIA; SATURI DE CARVALHO, ANA ELISA T.; ORTOLANI, DANIELA; DE MOURA, ANDRE LUIZ; VASSALO, PAULA FRIZERA. Role of Beta-adrenergic Receptors and Sirtuin Signaling in the Heart During Aging, Heart Failure, and Adaptation to Stress. Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, v. 38, n. 1, SI, p. 109-120, JAN 2018. (16/20777-8, 12/21990-6)

SPADARI, REGINA CELIA; CAVADAS, CLAUDIA; SATURI DE CARVALHO, ANA ELISA T.; ORTOLANI, DANIELA; DE MOURA, ANDRE LUIZ; VASSALO, PAULA FRIZERA. Role of Beta-adrenergic Receptors and Sirtuin Signaling in the Heart During Aging, Heart Failure, and Adaptation to Stress. Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, v. 38, n. 1, p. 12-pg., 2018-01-01. (16/20777-8, 12/21990-6)