International Research Fellowship Program: Stress and Reproduction: Mechanisms and Functions of Acute Stress Effects on Brain Aromatase Activity

0910495狄更斯该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。 该计划的奖项提供了合作研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持莫莉狄更斯博士与雅克巴尔萨扎特博士在比利时的列日大学合作24个月的研究奖学金。当动物在野外遇到压力源时，直接目标是生存。例如，由于逃避捕食者比繁殖更直接，因此快速抑制生殖行为通常被认为是对急性应激源的重要适应性反应。然而，当动物长期处于应激状态时，这种暂时的繁殖抑制会成为长期的，对动物有害的。s健身。 慢性压力相关的繁殖抑制是特别有问题的保护工作和理解这种抑制是越来越重要的物种保护更严重地依赖于压力的人类调解，如圈养繁殖，重新引入和易位。 为了充分了解慢性应激对生殖行为的影响，必须了解性行为和急性应激之间适应性联系的潜在机制。PI正在与Jacques Balthazart博士合作，利用充分表征的日本鹌鹑模型来解决急性应激与生殖行为之间的这种联系，Jacques Balthazart博士为理解日本鹌鹑生殖行为的神经学基础奠定了概念基础。 在成年雄性日本鹌鹑中，性行为被来自睾酮（T）芳构化的17 β-雌二醇（E2）迅速激活（在一分钟内），初步数据表明，急性束缚应激或注射皮质酮（CORT）改变了芳香酶的活性。 该项目的目标是研究这种相互作用，以确定急性应激对芳香化酶依赖性生殖行为的机制和功能作用。PI和宿主首先通过测试压力或外周注射压力激素后芳香化酶活性变化的潜伏期来确定该动作何时发生。此外，他们正在测试这种行为发生在哪里，以及这种行为如何传达到含有芳香酶的大脑区域。 PI和主机也通过测试假设，如果压力改变芳香化酶活性，那么芳香化酶依赖的生殖行为的变化将对应于这些改变，评估链接的功能。 为了验证这一假设，PI和主机跟踪由于急性应激和激素注射导致的交配行为频率的变化，确定这些变化如何取决于应激源严重程度，并评估应激对生殖行为学习的作用。PI和主机预测，急性应激和相关激素将改变雄性鹌鹑视前核芳香化酶活性的变化，生殖行为。PI打算利用从这些实验中获得的知识，最终研究慢性压力如何导致生殖行为的长期抑制，因为它涉及到保护工作的困难。

0910495DickensThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Molly Dickens to work with Dr. Jacques Balthazart at the University of Liege in Belgium.When an animal encounters a stressor in the wild, the immediate goal is survival. Since escaping a predator, for example, is more an immediate concern than breeding, a quick suppression of reproductive behavior is often thought to be an important adaptive response to an acute stressor. However, when an animal is chronically stressed, this temporary suppression of reproduction can become long-term and detrimental for the animal?s fitness. Chronic stress-related suppression of reproduction is especially problematic for conservation efforts and understanding this suppression is increasingly important as species preservation depends more heavily on stressful human mediation such as captive breeding, reintroduction and translocation. In order to fully understand the chronic stress effects on reproductive behavior, the underlying mechanisms of the adaptive connection between sexual behavior and acute stress must be understood. The PI is addressing this link between acute stress and reproductive behavior utilizing the well-characterized Japanese quail model in collaboration with Dr. Jacques Balthazart, who established the conceptual groundwork for understanding the neurological basis of reproductive behaviors in Japanese quail. In adult male Japanese quail, sexual behaviors are activated rapidly (within a minute) by 17 beta-estradiol (E2) derived from aromatization of testosterone (T) and preliminary data suggest that acute restraint stress or injection of corticosterone (CORT), alters activity of the aromatase enzyme. The goal of the project is to investigate this interaction to determine the mechanistic and functional role of acute stress acting on aromatase-dependent reproductive behaviors. The PI and host are first addressing when this action occurs by testing the latency of changes in aromatase activity following stress, or peripheral injections of stress hormones. In addition, they are testing where this action occurs and how the action is communicated to aromatase-containing brain regions. The PI and host are also evaluating the functionality of the link by testing the hypothesis that if stress alters aromatase activity then changes in aromatase-dependent reproductive behaviors will correspond to these alterations. To test this hypothesis, the PI and host are tracking changes in frequency of copulatory behaviors due to acute stress and hormone injections, determining how the changes depend on degree of stressor severity, and evaluating the role of stress on learning of reproductive behaviors. The PI and host predict that acute stress and the related hormones will alter reproductive behavior through changes in aromatase activity in the preoptic nucleus of male quail. The PI intends to use the knowledge gained from these experiments to eventually investigate how chronic stress leads to long-term suppression of reproductive behavior as it pertains to difficulties with conservation efforts.