The study, led by academics at the University of Bristol and published today [6 August] in Nature Communications, has discovered a link between corticosteroid receptors – the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) - and ciliary and neuroplasticity genes in the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in stress coping and learning and memory.
The aim of the research was to find out what genes MR and GR interact with across the entire hippocampus genome during normal circadian variation and after exposure to acute stress. The research team also wanted to discover whether any interaction would result in changes in the expression and functional properties of these genes.
The study combined advanced next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics and pathway analysis technologies to enable a greater understanding into glucocorticoid hormone action, via MRs and GRs, on gene activity in the hippocampus.