Figure 7.
Effects of CORT pretreatment on basal and stress-induced pituitary anterior lobe and intermediate lobe cfos mRNA levels of non-CX or CX pretreated rats. (A) In the absence of CX pretreatment, restraint produced a large increase in c-fos mRNA within the anterior pituitary. Pretreatment with CORT 3 h, but not 1 h, suppressed stress-induced anterior pituitary c-fos mRNA levels. (B) Systemic pretreatment with CX increased basal anterior pituitary c-fos mRNA levels and blocked the 3 h CORT pretreatment effect. (C) In the absence of CX pretreatment, restraint induced c-fos mRNA in the intermediate lobe of the pituitary, and CORT pretreatment had no effect. (D) CX pretreatment increased basal but not stress-induced c-fos mRNA in the intermediate lobe of the pituitary. Panel E shows representative autoradiographic images of the pituitaries from key comparison conditions depicted in panels A–D. Values are presented as a percentage of the mean value of the non-CX pretreated stressed 3 h vehicle rats. *, represents a significant stress effect within same drug condition and pretreatment time point (p < 0.05, FLSD); +, represents a significant CORT effect compared to vehicle treated rats within the same pretreatment time and stress condition (p < 0.05, FLSD); R, represents a significant difference between CX pretreated rats (B) compared to the corresponding non-CX treated rats (A) (p < 0.05, FLSD).
