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Alterations of the daily rhythms of HPT axis induced by chronic unpredicted mild stress in rats

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Abstract

The relationship between thyroid function and depression has long been recognized. Patients with thyroid disorders are more prone to develop depressive symptoms and conversely depression may be accompanied by various subtle thyroid abnormalities. However, the daily rhythm alteration of the functions of the hypothalamus pituitary thyroid axis (HPT) is uncertain. In the present study, we investigated the effects of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) on the daily rhythm alterations of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) in the plasma. We found that CUMS led to depressive-like behavior and the daily rhythm of T3, T4, and TSH in the plasma being disturbed, as well the plasma levels of T3 and T4 decreased compared to control group. Our findings indicate that CUMS not only induce hypofunction of HPT axis but also the disturbance of daily rhythm of PHT axis in rats.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81171251, 31230033, and 91132716) and Humanity and Social Science of Ministry of Education of China (No. 12YJCZH063).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest related to the data presented in this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University, 38, Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China

    Li-Jing Liu, Ling-Zhi Xu, Su-Xia Li & Lin Lu

  2. Department of Psychology, Normal College, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Tian-You Guo, Li-Guo He, Yu-Ming Chen & Han-Dan Yang

  3. Division of Clinical Neuroscience, Center for Forensic Mental Health, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

    Ji-Chun Zhang & Kenji Hashimoto

  4. Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, 260-8670, Japan

    Cheng Chen

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  1. Tian-You Guo
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Correspondence to Su-Xia Li.

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Tian-You Guo and Li-Jing Liu have contributed equally to this work.

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Guo, TY., Liu, LJ., Xu, LZ. et al. Alterations of the daily rhythms of HPT axis induced by chronic unpredicted mild stress in rats. Endocrine 48, 637–643 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-014-0314-y

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