Adrenal corticosteroids (cortisol in humans or corticosterone in rodents) exert numerous effects on the central nervous system that regulates the stress response, mood, learning and memory, and various neuroendocrine functions. Corticosterone (CORT) actions in the brain are mediated via two receptor systems: the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). It has been shown that GR and MR are highly colocalized in the hippocampus. These receptors are mainly distributed in the cytoplasm without hormones and translocated into the nucleus after treatment with hormones to act as transcriptional factors. Thus the subcellular dynamics of both receptors are one of the most important issues. Given the differential action of MR and GR in the central nervous system, it is of great consequence to clarify how these receptors are trafficked between cytoplasm and nucleus and their interactions are regulated by hormones and/or other molecules to exert their transcriptional activity. In this review, we focus on the nucleocytoplasmic and subnuclear trafficking of GR and MR in neural cells and non-neural cells analyzed by using molecular imaging techniques with green fluorescent protein (GFP) including fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), and discuss various factors affecting the dynamics of these receptors. Furthermore, we discuss the future directions of in vivo molecular imaging of corticosteroid receptors at the whole brain level.

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Recent advances of imaging techniques have enabled us to investigate the dynamics of synapses in living neurons. The synapse is constructed of presynaptic and postsynaptic elements which contain various kinds of structural and functional molecules. The postsynaptic density (PSD) is the most prominent structure among the excitatory postsynaptic elements. One of the main components of PSD is the scaffolding proteins which interact with multiple proteins in the synapse. Scaffolding proteins are suggested to play key roles in the emergence, maintenance, and remodeling of the excitatory synapses. Several kinds of scaffolding proteins are known to be present in the mammalian and also other vertebrate brains. These proteins were labeled with green fluorescent protein (GFP) and expressed in cultured neurons to analyze the dynamics and turnover of molecules in the synapses. In this review we describe how these molecules behave when the synapse is newly added or eliminated in the steady state and also when neuronal activity is changed.

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Heat shock protein 27 kDa (Hsp27) functions as a molecular chaperon to prevent apoptosis as well as to contribute to the regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation during development. In the present study, the localization of Hsp27 in the oral epithelium of rats and its expression change during formation of the gingiva with the tooth eruption were examined immunohistochemically to elucidate the roles of Hsp27 in the oral mucosa.
In adult rats, Hsp27-immunoreactivity was localized in the prickle and granular layers but absent in the basal and horny layers of the oral epithelium. On the other hand, in the outer and sulcular epithelia of the free gingival, Hsp27-immunoreactivity was detected in the whole layers, while it was not found in the proliferation zone of the junctional epithelium immunoreactive for Ki67. In immature rats on 10th postnatal day, Hsp27-immunoreactivity was intense in the prickle and granular layers of the oral epithelium, but was not detected in its basal layer. In rats at the eruptive phase on 15th postnatal day, Hsp27-immunoreactivity was detected in sites of the basal layer adjacent to where the dental cusps penetrated through the oral epithelium. Although the immunoreactivity for Ki67 was found in the basal layer of the oral epithelium, it was not localized in the Hsp27-immunopositive sites of tooth-penetration in the basal layer. Just after the tooth-eruption on 20th postnatal day, Hsp27-immunoreactivity was not found in the stratified squamous epithelium at the dentogingival junction, whereas it was intense in a single layer of cuboidal epithelial cells attached to the tooth neck. Ki67-positive cells were scattered in the stratified squamous epithelium at the dentogingival junction, whereas no positive cells were found in the portion of a single layer of cuboidal epithelial cells.
These findings suggest that the outer and sulcular epithelia of the free gingiva have a relatively slower rate of proliferation than other gingival and oral epithelia, and that Hsp27 might inhibit the proliferation of the basal cells. Such specific phenomenon in the free gingiva occurred immediately after the dental cusps were exposed to the oral cavity.

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It has been reported that premature infants in neonatal intensive care units are exposed to a high rate of bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disrupting chemical. Our previous studies demonstrated that corticothalamic projection was disrupted by prenatal exposure to BPA, which persisted even in adult mice. We therefore analyzed whether prenatal and lactational exposure to low doses of BPA affected the formation of the cortical barrel, the barreloid of the thalamus, and the barrelette of the brainstem in terms of the histology and the expression of genes involved in the barrel development. Pregnant mice were injected subcutaneously with 20 μg/kg of BPA daily from embryonic day 0 (E0) to postnatal 3 weeks (P3W), while the control mice received a vehicle alone. The barrel, barreloid and barrelette of the adult mice were examined by cytochrome C oxidase (COX) staining. There were no significant differences in the total and septal areas and the patterning of the posterior medial barrel subfield (PMBSF), barreloid and barrelette, between the BPA-exposure and control groups in the adult mice. The developmental study at postnatal day 1 (PD1), PD4 and PD8 revealed that the cortical barrel vaguely appeared at PD4 and completely formed at PD8 in both groups. The expression pattern of some genes was spatiotemporally altered depending on the sex and the treatment. These results suggest that the trigeminal projection and the thalamic relay to the cortical barrel were spared after prenatal and lactational exposure to low doses of BPA, although prenatal exposure to BPA was previously shown to disrupt the corticothalamic projection.

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