BackgroundStress during fetal life increases the risk of affective and immune disorders later in life. The altered peripheral immune response caused by prenatal stress may impact on brain function by the modification of local inflammation. In this study we have explored whether prenatal stress results in alterations in the immune response in the hippocampus of female mice during adult life.MethodsPregnant C57BL/6 mice were subjected three times/day during 45 minutes to restraint stress from gestational Day 12 to delivery. Control non-stressed pregnant mice remained undisturbed. At four months of age, non-stressed and prenatally stressed females were ovariectomized. Fifteen days after surgery, mice received an i.p. injection of vehicle or of 5 mg/kg of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Mice were sacrificed 20 hours later by decapitation and the brains were removed. Levels of interleukin-1β (IL1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interferon γ-inducible protein 10 (IP10), and toll-like receptor 4 mRNA were assessed in the hippocampus by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Iba1 immunoreactivity was assessed by immunocytochemistry. Statistical significance was determined by one-way or two-way analysis of variance.ResultsPrenatal stress, per se, increased IL1β mRNA levels in the hippocampus, increased the total number of Iba1-immunoreactive microglial cells and increased the proportion of microglial cells with large somas and retracted cellular processes. In addition, prenatally stressed and non-stressed animals showed different responses to peripheral inflammation induced by systemic administration of LPS. LPS induced a significant increase in mRNA levels of IL-6, TNF-α and IP10 in the hippocampus of prenatally stressed mice but not of non-stressed animals. In addition, after LPS treatment, prenatally stressed animals showed a higher proportion of Iba1-immunoreactive cells in the hippocampus with morphological characteristics of activated microglia compared to non-stressed animals. In contrast, LPS induced similar increases in expression of IL1β and toll-like receptor 4 in both prenatally stressed and non-stressed animals.ConclusionThese findings indicate that prenatal stress induces long-lasting modifications in the inflammatory status of the hippocampus of female mice under basal conditions and alters the immune response of the hippocampus to peripheral inflammation.

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Using pharmacological tools, a role for opioid receptors in the regulation of food intake has been documented. However, the involvement of specific receptor subtypes remains questionable, and little information is available regarding a role for opioid receptors in energy metabolism. Using adult male mice lacking the -opioid receptor (MOR) gene (MOR ؊/؊ ), we show that the MOR is not essential for the maintenance of normal levels of ad libitum food intake but does modulate the efficiency of energy storage during high-fat diets through the regulation of energy partitioning. When fed a regular diet, MOR ؊/؊ mice displayed only subtle alterations in energy homeostasis, suggesting a relative overuse of fat as a fuel source in the fed state. When fed a high-fat diet, MOR ؊/؊ mice were resistant to obesity and impaired glucose tolerance, despite having similar energy intake to wild-type mice. This resistance to obesity was associated with a strong induction of the expression of key mitochondrial enzymes involved in fatty acid oxidation within skeletal muscle. This metabolic role of the MOR, which is consistent with the properties of a "thrifty gene," suggests that the MOR pathway is a potential target for pharmacological intervention in the treatment of obesity associated with the intake of fatty diets. Diabetes 54: 3510 -3516, 2005 T he endogenous opioid system encompasses cloned receptor populations (, ␦, and ) and ligands (␤-endorphin, the enkephalins, and the dynorphins). Extensive work indicates that the opioid system plays a role in the regulation of appetite. Opioid receptors and peptides are expressed in sites of the central nervous system that play a role in regulating feeding behavior, and pharmacological experiments using opioid receptor ligands show that agonists promote eating and antagonists decrease food intake, at least in the short term (1-3). Numerous pharmacological studies indicate that opioids also play a role in modulating the rewarding effects of food (3-5). In contrast, little information suggests that opioids have a role in energy metabolism (6 -8).The need to establish the specific role of the opioid receptors in energy homeostasis has led to studies using putative specific opioid receptor ligands or, more recently, antisense probes directed against specific exons of opioid receptor genes (3,9). Pharmacological studies suggest that the and pathways are part of an interconnected brain network and participate in the orexigenic effect of several peptides that regulate food intake (10 -13). However, the interpretation of these data is complicated by our poor knowledge of the in vivo selectivity of ligand-receptor interactions that have been established in vitro (9,14).Recent studies conducted in mutant mice null for the opioid receptors have complemented pharmacological approaches and clarified the role of each receptor in nociception, anxiety, and drug abuse (14). To further define the role of the -opioid receptor (MOR) pathway in energy homeostasis, we characterized mice lacking the MOR gene ...

It has been previously reported that the neuroprotective hormone oestradiol reduces microglia inflammatory activity. The objective of this study was to test whether two selective oestrogen receptor modulators, tamoxifen and raloxifene, modulate in vivo the activation of microglia induced by the peripheral administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Activation of microglia was assessed in the white matter of the cerebellum using immunoreactivity for major histocompatability complex-II. Oestradiol, tamoxifen and raloxifene decreased microglia activation induced by LPS in male and ovariectomized female rats, although the doses of oestradiol that were effective in decreasing microglia reactivity were not the same in both sexes. Tamoxifen reduced microglia activation in all experimental groups at all doses tested (0 . 5-2 mg/kg b.w.) while raloxifene lost its anti-inflammatory activity at the higher dose tested (2 mg/kg b.w). In addition, raloxifene had per se a moderate pro-inflammatory activity in the brain of control female rats and its antiinflammatory activity was partially impaired in female animals after 1 month of deprivation of ovarian hormones. Spots of oestrogen receptor (ER)-a immunoreactivity were detected in the soma and cell processes of microglia. Treatment with LPS, oestradiol or tamoxifen induced an increase of ER-a immunoreactive spots in the perikaryon of microglia, while oestradiol antagonized the effect of LPS. The results indicate that some oestrogenic compounds decrease brain inflammation by a mechanism that may involve ERs expressed by microglia. The findings support the potential therapeutic role of oestrogenic compounds as protective anti-inflammatory agents for the central nervous system.

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After brain injury, astrocytes acquire a reactive phenotype characterized by a series of morphological and molecular modifications, including the expression of the cytoskeletal protein vimentin. Previous studies have shown that estradiol down-regulates reactive astrogliosis. In this study we assessed whether raloxifene and tamoxifen, two selective estrogen receptor modulators, have effects similar to estradiol in astrocytes. We also assessed whether aging and the timing of estrogenic therapy after ovariectomy influence the action of the estrogenic compounds. Four groups of animals were studied: 1) young rats, ovariectomized at 2 months of age; 2) middle-aged rats, ovariectomized at 8 months of age; 3) aged rats, ovariectomized at 18 months of age; and 4) aged rats, ovariectomized at 2 months and sham operated at 18 months of age. Fifteen days after ovariectomy or sham surgery, animals received a stab wound brain injury and the treatment with the estrogenic compounds. The number of vimentin-immunoreactive astrocytes after injury was significantly higher in the hippocampus of aged rats after a long-term ovariectomy compared with aged animals after a short-term ovariectomy and middle-aged rats. In addition, reactive astrocytes were more numerous in the two groups of aged animals than in young animals. Despite these differences, the estrogenic compounds reduced reactive astrogliosis in all animal groups. These findings indicate that estradiol, raloxifene, and tamoxifen are potential candidates for the control of astrogliosis in young and older individuals and after a prolonged depletion of ovarian hormones.

The actions of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and related peptides are mediated by two receptors (CRF 1 and CRF 2 ). The respective role of each subtype in the control of food intake remains poorly known. In the present study, we examined the quantity and microstructure of ingestive behavior of knockout (KO) mice lacking CRF 2 receptors and their wild-type (WT) littermates. Under basal conditions, CRF 2 KO mice showed increased nocturnal food intake, evident as an increased zenith in circadian cosinor analysis of food intake. Microstructure analysis revealed that this greater food intake reflected increased meal size, rather than meal frequency, suggesting a decreased satiating value of food. Following acute restraint stress, CRF 2 KO mice showed an intact immediate anorectic response with increased latency to eat and decreased meal size. However, CRF 2 deletion abolished the prolonged phase of restraint-induced anorexia. CRF 2 KO mice did not differ from WT controls in feeding responses to food deprivation or injection of ghrelin receptor agonists. Independent of genotype, food deprivation increased food intake, with dramatic changes in meal size, meal frequency, water : food ratio and eating rate. Acyl-ghrelin or BIM-28131, a potent ghrelin analog, dose-dependently stimulated food intake by increasing meal size (ghrelin, BIM-28131) and meal number (BIM-28131), while slowing the average eating rate (BIM-28131) similarly in WT and KO mice. These results suggest that the CRF 2 receptor is involved in the control of meal size during the active phase of eating and following acute exposure to stress.

Neuroinflammation comprises a feature of many neurological disorders that is accompanied by the activation of glial cells and the release of pro‐inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Such activation is a normal response oriented to protect neural tissue and it is mainly regulated by microglia and astroglia. However, excessive and chronic activation of glia may lead to neurotoxicity and may be harmful for neural tissue. The ovarian hormone oestradiol exerts protective actions in the central nervous system that, at least in part, are mediated by a reduction of reactive gliosis. Several selective oestrogen receptor modulators may also exert neuroprotective effects by controlling glial inflammatory responses. Thus, tamoxifen and raloxifene decrease the inflammatory response caused by lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial endotoxin, in mouse and rat microglia cells in vitro. Tamoxifen and raloxifene are also able to reduce microglia activation in the brain of male and female rats in vivo after the peripheral administration of lipopolysaccharide. In addition, tamoxifen decreases the microglia inflammatory response induced by irradiation. Furthermore, treatment with tamoxifen and raloxifene resulted in a significant reduction of the number of reactive astrocytes in the hippocampus of young, middle‐aged and older female rats after a stab wound injury. Tamoxifen, raloxifene and the new selective oestrogen receptor modulators ospemifene and bazedoxifene decrease the expression and release of interleukine‐6 and interferon‐γ inducible protein‐10 in cultured astrocytes exposed to lipopolysaccharide. Ospemifene and bazedoxifene exert anti‐inflammatory effects in astrocytes by a mechanism involving classical oestrogen receptors and the inhibition of nuclear factor‐kappa B p65 transactivation. These data suggest that oestrogenic compounds are candidates to counteract brain inflammation under neurodegenerative conditions by targeting the production and release of pro‐inflammatory molecules by glial cells.