Glucocorticoid Receptors

Stress is a way of responding to demands that are presented. Stress can either be good and motivate or be bad, such as when there is too much and the body cannot handle it. For both physical and psychological stress the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is involved in the response. The HPA axis becomes activated when cortisol levels are increased, such as when stress levels increase (de Kloet, Joëls, & Holsboer, 2005). Glucocorticoid receptors (GCR) are affected by increased cortisol levels due to their high affinity to bind when the cortisol levels are intermediate to high. Furthermore the GCRs are involved in the termination of the stress response (de Kloet et al., 2005).

GCRs are found in the hippocampus, hypothalamus and cerebellum and are involved in the termination of the stress response (Banerjee & Adkins-Regan, 2011). This mechanism allows GCRs to play a critical regulatory role in the HPA axis (Banerjee & Adkins-Regan, 2011). An expression of a large number of GCRs indicates less sensitivity to stress, where as an expression of a low number of GCRs indicates an increased sensitivity to stress (Banerjee & Adkins-Regan, 2011). High levels of stress early in life are known to lead to increased corticosterone levels

Furthermore paternal deprivation has been demonstrated to alter the HPA axis activity by having decreased glucocorticoid receptors in a sex specific way for females (Wu R et al., 2014). Tyrka et al. (2008) also found that parental loss was associated with increased cortisol levels more so in men than women (Tyrka, et al., 2008). Sex differences effects have also been found in the response of the HPA axis to stress, with females being found to be less effected by stress compared to males (Handa, Burgess, Kerr, & O’Keefe,