Normal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity leading to rhythmic and episodic release of adrenal glucocorticoids is essential for body homeostasis and survival during stress. Acting through specific intracellular receptors in the brain and periphery, glucocorticoids regulate behavior, metabolic, cardiovascular, immune, and neuroendocrine activities. In contrast to chronic elevated levels, circadian and acute stress-induced increases in glucocorticoids are necessary for hippocampal neuronal survival and memory acquisition and consolidation, through inhibiting apoptosis, facilitating glutamate transmission and inducing immediate early genes and spine formation. In addition to its metabolic actions leading to increasing energy availability, glucocorticoids have profound effects on feeding behavior, mainly through modulation of orexigenic and anorixegenic neuropeptides. Evidence is also emerging that in addition to the recognized immune suppressive actions of glucocorticoids by counteracting adrenergic proinflammatory actions, circadian elevations have priming effects in the immune system, potentiating acute defensive responses. In addition, negative feedback by glucocorticoids involves multiple mechanisms leading to limiting HPA axis activation and preventing deleterious effects of excessive glucocorticoid production. Adequate glucocorticoid secretion to meet body demands is tightly regulated by a complex neural circuitry controlling hypothalamic corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) and vasopressin secretion, the main regulators of pituitary adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH). Rapid feedback mechanisms, likely involving non-genomic actions of glucocorticoids, mediate immediate inhibition of hypothalamic CRH and ACTH secretion, while intermediate and delayed mechanisms mediated by genomic actions involve modulation of limbic circuitry and peripheral metabolic messengers. Consistent with their key adaptive roles, HPA axis components are evolutionarily conserved, being present in the earliest vertebrates. Understanding these basic mechanisms may lead to novel approaches for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools for disorders related to stress and alterations of glucocorticoid secretion.

Metabolic endotoxemia contributes to low-grade inflammation in obesity, which causes insulin resistance due to the activation of intracellular proinflammatory pathways, such as the c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) cascade in the hypothalamus and other tissues. However, it remains unclear whether the proinflammatory process precedes insulin resistance or it appears because of the development of obesity. Hypothalamic low-grade inflammation was induced by prolonged lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure to investigate if central insulin resistance is induced by an inflammatory stimulus regardless of obesity. Male Wistar rats were treated with single (1 LPS) or repeated injections (6 LPS) of LPS (100 μg/kg, IP) to evaluate the phosphorylation of the insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS1), Protein kinase B (AKT), and JNK in the hypothalamus. Single LPS increased the expression of pIRS1, pAKT, and pJNK, whereas the repeated LPS treatment failed to recruit pIRS1 and pAKT. The 6 LPS treated rats showed increased total JNK and pJNK. The 6 LPS rats became unresponsive to the hypophagic effect induced by central insulin administration (12 μM/5 μL, ICV). Prolonged exposure to LPS (24 h) impaired the insulin-induced AKT phosphorylation and the translocation of the transcription factor forkhead box protein O1 (FoxO1) from the nucleus to the cytoplasm of the cultured hypothalamic GT1-7 cells. Central administration of the JNK inhibitor (20 μM/5 μL, ICV) restored the ability of insulin to phosphorylate IRS1 and AKT in 6 LPS rats. The present data suggest that an increased JNK activity in the hypothalamus underlies the development of insulin resistance during prolonged exposure to endotoxins. Our study reveals that weight gain is not mandatory for the development of hypothalamic insulin resistance and the blockade of proinflammatory pathways could be useful for restoring the insulin signaling during prolonged low-grade inflammation as seen in obesity.

The aim of the present work was to establish a time-course correlation between vascular and autonomic changes that contribute to the development of hypertension during ethanol ingestion in rats. For this, male Wistar rats were subjected to the intake of increasing ethanol concentrations in their drinking water during four weeks. Ethanol effects were investigated at the end of each week. Mild hypertension was already observed at the first week of treatment, and a progressive blood pressure increase was observed along the evaluation period. Increased pressor response to phenylephrine was observed from first to fourth week. α1-Adrenoceptor protein in the mesenteric bed was enhanced at the first week, whereas β2-adrenoceptor protein in the aorta was reduced after the second week. In the third week, ethanol intake facilitated the depressor response to sodium nitroprusside, whereas in the fourth week it reduced nitrate content in aorta and increased it plasma. The bradycardic component of the baroreflex was impaired, whereas baroreflex tachycardia was enhanced at the third and fourth weeks. AT1A receptor and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) mRNAs in the nucleus tractus solitarius were increased at the fourth week. These findings suggest that increased vascular responsiveness to vasoconstrictor agents is possibly a link factor in the development and maintenance of the progressive hypertension induced by ethanol consumption. Additionally, baroreflex changes are possibly mediated by alterations in angiotensinergic mechanisms and CNP content within the brainstem, which contribute to maintaining the hypertensive state in later phases of ethanol ingestion. Facilitated vascular responsiveness to nitric oxide seems to counteract ethanol-induced hypertension.

Taken together, these results suggest that increased sympathetic activity may contribute to the early increase in MAP observed in ETOH-treated rats. However, the maintenance of this effect may be predominantly regulated by the long-term increase in the secretion of other circulating factors, such as AVP and ANG II, the secretion of both hormones being stimulated by the ETOH-induced dehydration.