Effects of Intravenous Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone upon Sleep-Related Growth Hormone Surge and Sleep EEG in Man

1988

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) plays a key role in coordinating neuroendocrine, metabolic and behavioral responses in stress and affective disorders. To further investigate the effects of enhanced pituitary-adrenocortical activity upon sleep-related phenomena we administered four intravenous injections of 50 micrograms human (h)-CRH or saline to 11 normal males at 10 p.m., 11 p.m., 12 p.m. and 1 a.m. and measured plasma levels of cortisol and growth hormone (GH) as well as sleep EEG recordings throughout the night. Treatment with h-CRH resulted in a significant increase of mean (+/- SEM) cortisol secretion between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. (h-CRH: 100.6 +/- 9.5 ng/ml; saline: 39.0 +/- 1.5 n…

Changes of the ratio between myelin thickness and axon diameter in human developing sural, femoral, ulnar, facial, and trochlear nerves

1988

Previous studies on sural nerves were extended to human femoral, ulnar, facial and trochlear nerves. As asynchronous development of axon diameter and myelin sheath thickness was noted in all nerves studied. Whereas axons reach their maximal diameter by or before 5 years of age, maximal myelin sheath thickness is not attained before 16-17 years of age, i.e., more than 10 years later. The slope of the regression lines for the ratio between axon diameter and myelin thickness is significantly steeper in older than in younger individuals; it also differs if small and large fibers with more or less than 50 myelin lamellae are evaluated separately. The number of Schmidt-Lanterman incisures during …

Serial assessment of corticotropin-releasing hormone response after dexamethasone in depression. Implications for pathophysiology of DST nonsuppressi…

1987

Studies of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenocortical System: An Example of Progress in Psychoneuroendocrinology

1986

Psychobiological study of affective disorders has passed through several phases during the last three decades. With the discovery of thymoleptic drugs and our partial understanding of their pharmacological properties, a dominant theme in psychiatric research came to be the pathophysiology underlying depressive illness. Since enhancement of monoamine neurotransmission was found to be a common characteristic of most antidepressants, several attempts were made to test the hypothesis of a defective cerebral monoamine transmission as the prime cause of depression. In this context, neuroendocrinology became an area that was of particular interest to investigators, for several reasons. Basic resea…