Even if not associated with specific adverse stimuli, exposure to novel environment is a well-recognized naturalistic stressor, and changes in brain catecholamines and pituitary and adrenal secretions have been demonstrated.

Less congruous are data concerning the dynamics of the hormonal response following repeated exposure and the direction of changes in hypothalamic peptide stimulators of ACTH Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical release.51,52 Several environmental signals acting through different sensory modalities (auditory, visual, tactile) have been shown to elicit stress responses. Audiogenic stress (noise exposure) is a well-characterized paradigm, with response profiles of individual parameters having been thoroughly examined.53 Exposure to bright light or abrupt alteration of illumination rhythms are naturalistic stressors in laboratory rodents, and endocrine responses have been documented,54 though some mechanisms require elucidation. Responses induced by modification of the illumination regimen may be obscured by interference with established circadian Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and ultradian activity patterns of the involved physiological

systems. The capacity of olfactory stimuli to elicit pronounced Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical stress reactions is best exemplified by studies employing the paradigm of exposure to odors originating from either a predator or a stressed cospecific individual. Odor-induced stress responses do not completely Inhibitor Library overlap with those seen after realistic encounter with a predator.55 The importance of olfactory stressors in experimental routine should be taken into consideration: whenever animals are sequentially stressed, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the odor of the “predecessor” must be eliminated after completion of the test. Pain paradigms Nociceptive stimuli are among the most powerful inducers of stress responses. Although concerns of animal welfare have gradually diminished

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the use of pain-based paradigms, painful manipulations, such as electric footshock, tail pinch, and pharmacologically-induced hyperalgesia (formalin, carrageenan), have served for decades as fundamental approaches for stress induction and dependable manifestation of most tuclazepam of the known stress-associated reactions of the organism. Chronic pain of inflammatory or neuropathic origin produces consequences that show extensive similarities and share several mediators with chronic stress.56 Fear-and anxiety-based paradigms Exposure to a predator is a prototypic example for fearmediated stress induction, and the response profiles of several systems have been comprehensively elucidated.55 Intriguingly, repeated predator stress appears to promote a homotypic sensitization of neuroendocrine response mechanisms, with little evidence for a primary involvement of hypothalamic corticotropin secretagogue-producing neuronal populations.