Interaction of childhood maltreatment with the
corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor gene: Effects on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity.
The concentration of circulating
corticotropin-releasing hormone mRNA in maternal plasma is increased in preeclampsia.
Transient early-life forebrain
corticotropin-releasing hormone elevation causes long-lasting anxiogenic and despairlike changes in mice.
Corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 (CrH1) antagonism in anxious alcoholics, 2011.
Circulatory
corticotropin-releasing hormone mRNA concentrations are increased in women with preterm delivery but not in those who respond to tocolytic treatment.
The chemical signals initiating the different aspects of the stress response are triggered by two factors in the brain, says Gold:
corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and a bundle of neurons called the locus ceruleus.
Fetally derived
corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) mRNA is reportedly increased in pregnancies with manifest preeclampsia (10), and human chorionic gonadotropin [beta]-subunit mRNA has been reported to be increased in pregnancies with aneuploid fetuses (11).
Since its discovery in 1981,
corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) has been shown to produce behavioral and physiological changes characteristic of depression when injected into the brains of rats.
Increased concentrations of mRNA for
corticotropin-releasing hormone, which is synthesized in the placenta, are seen in the blood of patients affected by preeclampsia (3), and panels of mRNAs (4) can be used to test for a disease of interest.
The amount of fetal DNA was measured by a TagMan[R] real-time PCR assay for a Y-chromosome-specific sequence (SRY) (17), whereas the presence of fetal mRNA was quantified by a similar quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assay for the
corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) gene, which is known to be expressed in the placenta (18).
(4) Nonstandard abbreviations: PTH, parathyroid hormone; ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone; CRH,
corticotropin-releasing hormone; and GH, growth hormone.
For the mRNA target, we chose the mRNA of the
corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) [3] locus, which is known to be expressed in the placenta (18) and is released into the maternal circulation (19, 20).