Search results for "pituitary"
showing 10 items of 238 documents
Increase in cortisol concentration due to standardized bright and blue light exposure on saliva cortisol in the morning following sleep laboratory
2020
Research studies on LED light exposure and cortisol are inconsistent and not comparable due to different types of light, exposure times, and sample sizes. Therefore, one hour of standardized exposure LED light at different intensities and the spectral composition during the post-awakening phase at 7:30 were compared. A sample of 23 (Study 1) and 26 (Study 2) healthy males were randomly assigned to: 1) bright white light (414 lux) and 2) dim darkened light (2 lux) as well as 3) red light (235 lux) and 4) blue light (201 lux) exposure conditions. Results from repeated measures ANOVA confirm that light exposure affects the cortisol concentration. Study 1 revealed an increase in the saliva cort…
Hair cortisol and cognitive performance in healthy older people
2013
Summary Worse cognitive performance in older people has been associated with hypothalamic—pituitary—adrenal axis dysregulation (in particular, higher cortisol levels). Analysis of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) is a novel method to measure long-term cortisol exposure, and its relationship with cognition in healthy older people has not yet been studied. We investigated whether HCC (measured in hair scalp) and diurnal salivary cortisol levels (awakening, 30 min after awakening, and evening, across two days) were related to cognitive performance (assessed with the Trail-making Test A and B, Digit Span Forward and Backward, word list-RAVLT and Stories subtest of the Rivermead) in 57 healthy…
Relationship between Cortisol Changes during the Night and Subjective and Objective Sleep Quality in Healthy Older People
2020
The aim of this study was to investigate whether the nighttime cortisol release was associated with subjective and objective sleep quality and the discrepancy between them. Forty-five healthy older adults (age range from 56 to 75 years) collected salivary samples immediately before sleep and immediately after awakening on two consecutive nights. Actigraphy was used to assess objective sleep quality and quantity. A sleep diary was used to assess subjective sleep quality. Linear mixed models were performed using subjective and objective sleep quality data from 76 nights to investigate between-subject associations. We observed that larger changes in cortisol levels between sleep onset and awak…
Mechanisms underlying the inhibitory effects induced by pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide in mouse ileum
2005
Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the signal transduction mechanisms underlying the inhibitory effect induced by pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide (PACAP-27) on the spontaneous contractile activity of longitudinal muscle of mouse ileum. Mechanical activity of ileal segments was recorded isometrically in vitro. PACAP-27 produced apamin-sensitive reduction of the amplitude of the spontaneous contractions. 9-(Tetrahydro-2-furanyl)-9H-purin-6-amine (SQ 22,536), adenylate cyclase inhibitor, or genistein and tyrphostin 25, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, had negligible effects on PACAP-27-induced inhibition. PACAP-27 effects were significantly inhibited by U-73122, phopho…
Mediation of perceived stress and cortisol in the association between neuroticism and global cognition in older adults: A longitudinal study.
2021
Neuroticism has been associated with a greater dementia risk, but its association with cognitive decline in healthy older adults remains unclear. Stress has been proposed as one of the mechanisms that could explain this relationship. Our aim was to analyse, in healthy older people, the mediating role of perceived stress and the Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal (HPA) axis in the association between neuroticism and global cognition. At Waves 1 and 2 (4-year follow-up), 87 older people (49.4% women; M age = 65.08, SD = 4.54 at Wave 1) completed a neuropsychological battery and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and provided saliva samples on two (Wave 1) and three (Wave 2) consecutive days to mea…
Adherence to growth hormone (GH) therapy in naïve to treatment GH-deficient children: data of the Italian Cohort from the Easypod Connect Observation…
2019
Background: With the use of non-objective measurement, adherence to growth hormone (GH) therapy has been reported suboptimal in a large proportion of patients, and poor adherence has been shown to affect short-term growth response in patients receiving GH treatment. Objective: The Easypod™ electronic device allows objective measurement of adherence. In this study, we report 3-year prospective adherence data of the Italian cohort of naïve GH deficient (GHD) children extrapolated from the Easypod Connect Observational Study (ECOS) database. Patients and methods: Seventy-three GHD children naïve to GH treatment were included in the analysis. 22 Italian centers participated in the study. Result…
High blood pressure responders show largest increase in heartbeat perception accuracy after post-learning stress following a cardiac interoceptive le…
2020
Mental disorders with physical symptoms, e.g. somatic symptom disorder, are characterized by altered interoceptive accuracy (IAc), which can be explained by individual differences in interoceptive learning (IL). We investigated if stress facilitates IL. Seventy-three healthy participants performed a heartbeat counting task (HCT: T1) and a heartbeat perception training (HBPT). After exposure to a socially-evaluated cold pressor stress test (SECPT; n = 48) or a control condition (n = 25), two more HCTs were performed (T2: 30 min after SECPT; T3: 24 h later). After the HBPT, all participants showed an increase in IAc. We separated the stress group into high vs. low systolic blood pressures (SB…
Direct and indirect effects of Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) on lung function in children: A mediation analysis
2018
Background: Studies on pulmonary function tests (PFTs) in Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) children are lacking. The aims of this study were: (i) to investigate PFTs in GHD pre-pubertal children with respect to Controls, before starting Growth Hormone Therapy (GHT) (T0); (ii) to evaluate changes of PFTs in GHD vs Controls, after 1-year GHT (T1). Forboth aims the mediation analysis (MA) was applied to evaluate the extent to which the relationship between GHD and PFTs could be ascribed to a height-mediated (indirect) or a GH direct effect. Methods: 47 pre-pubertal GHD children (aged 5–14 years) underwent PFTs at T0 and T1. At T0, 47 healthy children matched for age and sex were enrolled as Contr…
Induction of RAGE Shedding by Activation of G Protein-Coupled Receptors
2011
The multiligand Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products (RAGE) is involved in various pathophysiological processes, including diabetic inflammatory conditions and Alzheimers disease. Full-length RAGE, a cell surface-located type I membrane protein, can proteolytically be converted by metalloproteinases ADAM10 and MMP9 into a soluble RAGE form. Moreover, administration of recombinant soluble RAGE suppresses activation of cell surface-located RAGE by trapping RAGE ligands. Therefore stimulation of RAGE shedding might have a therapeutic value regarding inflammatory diseases. We aimed to investigate whether RAGE shedding is inducible via ligand-induced activation of G protein-coupled recep…
Integrated and diurnal indices of maternal pregnancy cortisol in relation to sex-specific parasympathetic responsivity to stress in infants.
2020
Maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity may prenatally program sex-specific stress response pathways. We investigated associations between maternal cortisol during pregnancy and infant parasympathetic responsivity to stress among 204 mother-infant pairs. Cortisol indices included 3(rd) trimester hair cortisol, as well as diurnal slope and area under the curve, derived from saliva samples collected during pregnancy. Mother-infant dyads participated in the Repeated Still-Face Paradigm (SFP-R) at age 6 months. We calculated respiration-adjusted respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA(c)), an indicator of parasympathetic activation, from infant respiration and cardiac activity mea…