AUTHOR=Daskalakis Nikolaos P. , De Kloet Edo Ronald , Yehuda Rachel , Malaspina Dolores , Kranz Thorsten M. 

TITLE=Early Life Stress Effects on Glucocorticoid—BDNF Interplay in the Hippocampus

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnmol.2015.00068

DOI=10.3389/fnmol.2015.00068

ISSN=1662-5099

ABSTRACT=<p>Early life stress (ELS) is implicated in the etiology of multiple psychiatric disorders. Important biological effects of ELS are manifested in stress-susceptible regions of the hippocampus and are partially mediated by long-term effects on glucocorticoid (GC) and/or neurotrophin signaling pathways. GC-signaling mediates the regulation of stress response to maintain homeostasis, while neurotrophin signaling plays a key role in neuronal outgrowth and is crucial for axonal guidance and synaptic integrity. The neurotrophin and GC-signaling pathways co-exist throughout the central nervous system (CNS), particularly in the hippocampus, which has high expression levels of glucocorticoid-receptors (GR) and mineralocorticoid-receptors (MR) as well as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its receptor, tropomyosin-related kinase receptor B (TrkB). This review addresses the effects of ELS paradigms on GC- and BDNF-dependent mechanisms and their crosstalk in the hippocampus, including potential implications for the pathogenesis of common stress-related disorders.</p>