Figure 5.

INI mice have an altered HPA axis. (A) Plasma corticosterone (n = 11–12) was measured at 07:00 h (lights on) and 19:00 h (lights off). Animals were single housed and kept in a quiet room with minimal disturbance for 5-7 days prior to testing to minimise stress (data compared by t-test). CRH (B) and glucocorticoid receptor (C) mRNA levels were measured in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in a subset of the animals from A (n = 5–8) by in situ hybridisation and silver grains per cell were quantified (data compared by two-way anova followed by Bonferroni testing). (D) Mice were restrained (10 min) daily for 20 days and peak plasma corticosterone was measured at 5 day intervals. The mice did not appear to show any difference in chronic stress adaptation, as measured by stress hormone levels. Values are mean + SEM; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.