105 Observations of reduced neophobia and anxiety (but also locomotion and exploration) in aged rodents106 is a further illustration of the difficulties on the way to an all-embracing view of age-associated control of stress responsiveness. Translational aspects: models of stress as models of diszase Assessment of individual aspects of the response to acute stress provides valuable information on the integrity

of the major systems of vital importance for adaptation, as well as on the perception of a stimulus as a homeostatic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical threat. Usually, response deficiency is interpreted as a clue for the search of organic damage in the challenged system or, alternatively, a sign of negligible aversive property/hazard potential of the stressful stimulus. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Rather than by its magnitude, the physiological dimension of a response to stress is defined by the organism’s ability to terminate it upon cessation of the stimulus or by the implementation of adequate means to control it or avoid repeated exposure. Elimination of the latter prerequisites

is readily achieved in stress paradigms employing enduring, variable, and nonpredictable challenges, whose common Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical outcome is persistent activation and, ultimately, insuperable allostatic load. Rheostasis (set-point shifting) may postpone, but not prevent, exhaustion of see more adaptive capacity, and is probably the best indicator of the transition from norm to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical pathology. Achievement of persistent shift in set points of signal reading and thresholds of response initiation,

and the resulting formation of self-potentiating vicious circuits Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical describes the objectives of the generation of stress-based models of disease. These objectives can be achieved in several paradigms under the conditions of chronic, unpredictable, and uncontrollable exposure, but also by exploiting sex- and age-dependent set-point differences or their pharmacological or genetic modification. The list of stress-related models that have been successfully used to establish approximate correlates of human disease is long and steadily growing. Evidence for the role of stress as (at the minimum) precipitating factor in depression and has encouraged the extensive transfer of stress paradigms L-NAME HCl into models of this disease. Posttraumatic stress disorder is another major area for the translational application of experimental stress models. Stress-based paradigms have a firm place in the arsenal of methods for realistic modeling of alcohol and drug addiction, withdrawal, and relapse. Knowledge accumulated in stress research has been implicated in models of eating disorders, aggression, and self-destructive behavior.