Talin is involved in the difference of recovery patterns from restraint stress in rats

Abstract

Although large inter-individual differences in stress response are found in any animal or human population, the detailed mechanism is poorly understood. Significant differences are observed not only in the adequate responses to stressors, but also in the variability of stress-induced susceptibility. Understanding the causes of individual differences and their consequences in terms of adaptive capacity and vulnerability to disease is a major challenge of modern life sciences. In this study we compared hypothalamus transcriptional profiles between two different recovery patterns (fast recovery vs slow recovery) from restraint stress in rats using oligonucleotide microarray. Two recovery patterns were determined by the decline of plasma ACTH and corticosterone levels during one hour recovery period after stress. A real-time quantitative RT-PCR was applied to validate the differential expressed genes. It was found that talin, an important focal adhesion component that binds to multiple adhesion molecules including integrins, vinculin, focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and actin, was two fold up-regulated in fast recovery group. The results provided the first evidence that talin was involved in the recovery process from restraint stress in rats. As talin binding to integrin ß-tails is a final common step in integrin activation, further study will be needed to clarify the talin-mediated recovery mechanism after stress. [J Physiol Sci. 2007;57 Suppl:S116]