behavior/neurological
N |
• compared to wild-type mice, homozygous mutant mice displayed normal anxiety responses, normal basal locomotor activity, and a similar reduction in locomotor activity in response to urocortin
(J:61510)
• homozygous mutant mice displayed normal anxiety responses in the light/dark emergence task (S. Coste and T. Phillips, unpublished)
(J:88769)
|
• homozygous mutant mice displayed normal basal feeding, but showed altered feeding responses to urocortin
(J:61510)
• both wild-type and homozygous mutant mice exhibited a similar inhibition of feeding immediately following icv urocortin treatment; however, mutant mice recovered to normal intake levels more rapidly (6 hrs post-injection) than wild-type animals which remained suppressed for >10 hrs
(J:61510)
• in addition to urocortin-stimulated feeding, food intake was altered following isolation stress (S. Coste and M. Stenzel-Poore, unpublished data)
(J:88769)
|
• homozygotes displayed a significantly reduced self-grooming behavior in a novel open-field
|
cardiovascular system
N |
• homozygous mutant mice displayed a normal resting heart rate; also, transthoracic echocardiography revealed normal basal left ventricular function
|
• in contrast to wild-type, cardiomyoctes from adult homozygous mutant mice failed to respond to urocortin and corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) by increasing intracellular cAMP levels
• mutant cardiomyocytes exhibited a normal cAMP response to forskolin
• i.v. urocortin administration increased cardiac function in wild-type to ~2-fold above baseline, but had no effect on homozygous mutant mice
|
• compared with wild-type mice, homozygous mutant mice had elevated mean arterial pressure (elevated diastolic and systolic blood pressure)
• in contrast to wild-type mice, systemic urocortin administration failed to decrease mean arterial pressure in homozygous mutant mice
|
homeostasis/metabolism
• homozygous mutant mice displayed normal basal levels of POMC1 (ACTH) and corticosterone
• homozygous mutant mice displayed altered HPA responses to stress: POMC1 (ACTH) levels rose more rapidly in homozygous mutant mice following 2 and 5 min of restraint stress, and declined by 10 min compared with wild-type levels which continued to rise after 10 min
• mutant mice displayed higher corticosterone levels following 10-min restraint, reflecting more robust increases in POMC1 (ACTH) levels at early time points
• mutants showed abnormal recovery from HPA activation: they displayed significantly higher corticosterone levels (90 min post-stress) compared with wild-type mice
• a modest increase in urocortin expression in the Edinger-Westphal nucleus was revealed in mutant mice by in situ hybridization
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immune system
N |
• homozygous mutant mice displayed normal immune composition
|