Browsing by Subject "cortisol"

Objective: Maternal prenatal distress increases the risk for offspring psychiatric problems. Genetic variation in FoxO1 was recently found to moderate the association between childhood stress and the risk for adulthood depression. This study is set to examine if FoxO1 modifies associations between maternal depression or anxiety during pregnancy and the risk for offspring psychiatric problems in early childhood. Methods: Participants were 460 mother-child pairs of the Finnish Prediction and prevention of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction (PREDO) -cohort. To measure maternal depression and anxiety the mothers completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and Spielberger State Anxiety Scale (STAI) up to 14 times during pregnancy. DNA was extracted from cord blood samples and FoxO1 genotypes from the Illumina OmniExpress Exome array. Offspring psychiatric problems were reported by the mothers with the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) at the mean age of 3.5-years. Results: Higher CES-D and STAI scores during pregnancy predicted higher child CBCL scores, but the associations differed according to the FoxO1 rs17592371 genotypes (p-values for interaction < .05). Higher maternal STAI and CES-D scores associated with higher scores in Total problems and Externalizing problems in rs17592371 CC carriers, but not in CT/TT carriers. Conclusions: The study showed that variation in the FoxO1 SNP rs17592371 modified the association between maternal depression and anxiety during pregnancy and offspring psychiatric problems in early childhood. This result is in line with an earlier study focusing on the modifying role of FoxO1 variation in the relationship between childhood stress and depression in adulthood and may thus indicate the role of FoxO1 in sensitivity to psychosocial distress.

Hevosten aivolisäkkeen toimintahäiriö, englanniksi pars pituitary intermedia dysfunction (PPID), on keski-iän ylittäneiden hevosten yksi yleisimpiä endokrinologisia sairauksia. Nykyinen laajasti hyväksytty käsitys on, että PPID on ensisijaisesti aivolisäkkeen dopaminergisten neuronien rappeumasairaus. Yksi potentiaalinen syy dopaminergiseen neurodegeneraatioon on oksidatiivinen stressi, mutta syytä tälle oksidatiiviselle stressille ei tiedetä. Taudissa aivolisäkkeen keskiosassa (pars intermedia) esiintyy solumäärän lisääntymistä, solujen suurentumista ja hyvänlaatuisia rauhaskasvaimia eli adenoomia. Tämän seurauksena aivolisäkkeen erittämät pro-opiomelaniiniperäisten peptidien, eli kortikotropiinin (ACTH), kortikotropiinityyppisen aivolisäkkeen keskiosan peptidin (CLIP), β-endorfiinin (β-END) ja α-melanosyyttejä stimuloivan hormonin (α-MSH), tuotanto lisääntyy. ACTH:n liikatuotanto lisää lisämunuaiskuoren kortisolihormonin tuotantoa, jonka liikatuotanto taas johtaa taudille ominaisiin tyypillisiin oireisiin: lisääntynyt infektioherkkyys, lihasten kuihtuminen, rasvakudoksen muutokset, huono lämmönsäätelykyky, väsyneisyys, heikentynyt rasituksensietokyky, mahdollinen kaviokuume sekä epänormaali karvanvaihto ja karvan laadun muuttuminen eli hypertrikioosi. Taudin diagnosoimiseen ei ole olemassa yhtä testausmenetelmää ylitse muiden, mutta käytännössä helpoin ja suositelluin keino on mitata plasman ACTH-pitoisuus. ACTH-pitoisuudet vaihtelevat terveilläkin hevosilla vuodenajan mukaan tasojen ollessa korkeita elokuusta lokakuuhun, mikä on otettava tuloksia tulkittaessa huomioon. Muita mahdollisia käytettävissä olevia testausmenetelmiä ovat tyreoliberiinistimulaatiotesti ja deksametasonisupressiotesti. PPID:in lääkkeellisessä hoidossa pergolidimesilaatti on ensisijainen lääke. Se estää oikealla annoksella PPID:in aiheuttamat muutokset kliiniseen kuvaan ja normalisoi veriarvojen hormonipitoisuuksia, sillä se estää aivolisäkkeen keskiosan hormonien tuotantoa ja vapautumista. Tällä hetkellä pergolidin hyväksyttävänä aloitusannoksena pidetään 2 μg/kg kerran päivässä suun kautta, jota voidaan nostaa tarvittaessa jopa 10 μg/kg annokseen. Lisäksi hoitoon kuuluvat muu hyvä vanhemman hevosen perushoito: hammashuolto, hyvät loishäätörutiinit sisältäen ulostenäytteiden tutkimisen, oikeanlainen ravinto, kavioiden huolto ja oikeanlainen liikunta. Viime aikoina on pyritty sairaiden hevosten tunnistamiseen jo sairauden alkuvaiheissa lievemmistä oireista, jolloin aloitetulla hoidolla voidaan säilyttää hevonen käyttökykyisenä pidempään. Näitä lieviä oireita ovat esimerkiksi alentunut suorituskyky, selkälinjan vajoaminen, lievät luonteenmuutokset, kavioiden tai niiden lamellien muutokset ilman jalkakipua ja lievästi hidastunut karvanvaihto ja/tai alueellinen hypertrikioosi. Kaviokuumetta on aiemmin pidetty yhtenä klassisena PPID:in oireena, mutta todellisuudessa suuri osa sairaista hevosista ei kehitä kaviokuumetta. Hyperinsulinemiaa puolestaan pidetään merkittävänä riskitekijänä kaviokuumeelle. PPID voi esiintyä yhdessä tai ilman insuliiniresistenssiä, mutta epidemiologisissa tutkimuksissa PPID:ia sairastavilla vanhemmilla hevosilla on kuitenkin suurempi todennäköisyys hyperinsulinemiaan verrattaessa sitä sairastamattomiin vanhoihin hevosiin. Insuliiniresistenssin testausta kannattaakin PPID-diagnosoiduilla hevosilla harkita.

Chronic pain is challenging to treat when the adverse effects of the analgesic agents become significant when used for a long period of time. Acupuncture has been shown to have analgesic effect without adverse effects. The modulatory effect of acupuncture on pain and what substances are involved in the modulation is, however, not completely understood. In this study 19 dogs with chronic pain caused by osteoarthritis in the hip joint was randomly divided into two groups: acupuncture group (AG) and sham group (SG). The AG got three acupuncture treatments with an interval of about one week and the SG got no treatment, they just rested on the floor in the treatment room. The owners and the researchers did not know into which group each dog was divided. Blood samples was taken from each dog in the beginning and at the end of the study to analyse the long-term effect (LT) and before and after one treatment to analyse the short-term effect (ST). From the blood samples the plasma concentration of serotonin (ST), prolactin (LT) and cortisol (ST and LT) were analysed and the concentrations between the groups and between the samples before and after were compared. The result of the study was that there was no statistically significant difference neither between the two groups nor between the before and after samples for neither serotonin, prolactin nor cortisol. There was, however, a strong trend toward significance in the increased concentration of LT cortisol between baseline and end of treatment in the AG (p=0.051), and a decrease of concentration of ST cortisol in both groups (p=0.051 for the AG and p=0.063 for the SG). More research, taking into consideration the limitations of this study, should be done.

Domesticated horses have been used for various tasks over their thousands of years of shared history with humans. To be able to perform these tasks every horse needs to learn the needed skills, and this requires systematic training. Training of adult horses has been studied for a long time and comparisons between the efficacy of different training methods have been done. There have also been some studies comparing how much and when young foals need to be handled for them to grow into easily trainable adults. From adult horses it is known that emotional state affects cognitive processes and with that also their learning efficiency and speed. The early stages of training young horses have not been studied very well. There is no clear picture about how young horses feel during training and how that affects their learning. In my thesis I studied young horses’ emotional states while learning new tasks and how that affects their learning. I followed the early training of 19 young horses (11 one-year-olds and 8 two- and three-year-olds) by videotaping five training sessions and collecting saliva samples before and after three of those sessions to analyse cortisol and oxytocin. From the videos I analysed how fast horses responded to trainer’s asks and how unfocused they were. From the hormone samples I measure the change in cortisol and oxytocin levels during training. Salivary cortisol has been widely used to measure acute stress. Oxytocin on the other hand is a newer indicator for positive emotions. To the best of my knowledge salivary oxytocin has never been used in horses. My data showed that the horses learned the required tasks: they became quicker at their responses and focused better during the course of training. Because my data was quite small and individual variation in the hormone levels was high, the results might have been affected by these factors. Linear mixed effect models showed that higher oxytocin levels before training session predicted quicker responses during training and lower levels after training predicted lower focusedness. Bigger increase in cortisol levels during training compared to the before level explained quicker responses and better focusedness, but higher levels before training resulted to lower focusedness and slower responses. This is in line with previous studies of adult horses, that showed that horses in a better emotional state and with less stress learn faster and are more interested in working with humans. This shows that it is important to not only focus on physical wellbeing but also mental wellbeing from early on in horses’ life.