Stress-Induced Hyperthermia, the Serotonin System and Anxiety
The Open Pharmacology Journal, 2010, 4, 15-29 15 Open Access Stress-Induced Hyperthermia, the Serotonin System and Anxiety *,1 1,2 3 1 Christiaan H. Vinkers , Berend Olivier , J. Adriaan Bouwknecht , Lucianne Groenink and Jocelien D.A. Olivier4,5 1Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS) and Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands 2Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, USA 3Department of Neuroscience, Pharmaceutical Research & Development, Johnson and Johnson, Beerse, Belgium 4Department of Molecular Animal Physiology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 5Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior: Department for Neuroscience, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Abstract: The serotonin (5-HT) system plays a key role in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders including mood and anxiety disorders. A role for serotonin in stress-related disorders is further supported by the fact that clinically effective treatments for these disorders alter serotonergic neurotransmission. The therapeutic potential of serotonergic pharmacological interventions has resulted in a variety of preclinical approaches to study the serotonin system. Of these, the stress-induced hyperthermia (SIH) paradigm has been extensively used to study the serotonin system at a preclinical level. The SIH response uses the transient rise in body temperature in response to a stressor which can be reduced using anxiolytic drugs including benzodiazepines, CRF receptor antagonists and serotonergic ligands. The present review aims to discuss the acute and chronic effects of 5-HT ligands on the SIH response. Also, the SIH response in genetically modified mice that lack or overexpress specific serotonergic receptor subtypes or the serotonin transporter will be summarized.
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