Chronic stress effects on the rat adrenal cortex.

ABSTRACT

Under the influence of a chronic permanent stress, the adrenal function as well as the entire hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) suffered an adaptation process that resulted in the normalization of the studied stress hormones (ACTH, corticosterone and aldosterone) with the exception of plasma renin activity which first diminished and at the end increased. ACTH receptors exhibited a dual response since after 14 days of permanent stress MC2-R showed a slight reduction while MC5-R was still up-regulated.