Effects of cold stress on hypothalamic corticotrophin-releasing and thyrotropin-releasing hormone messenger RNA levels in chickens

There is increasing evidence that stress can activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis and hypothalamic-pituitary- thyroid-axis,and further affect the synthesis and secretion of corticotrophin-releasing hormone(CRH)and thyrotropin-releasing hormone(TRH).To evaluate the effect of cold stress on the hypothalamic CRH and TRH messenger RNA(mRNA)levels in Yisha chickens,male Yisha chickens were subjected to acute(1,6,12 h)and chronic(5,10,20 d)cold stress(12±1)℃.Hypothalami were collected for assessment of mRNA levels by semi-quantitative RT-PCR.Acute stress resulted in a significant decrease of CRH mRNA levels at 6 and 12 h,and a significant increase of TRH mRNA levels at every stress time point.Chronic cold stress resulted in a significant increase of CRH mRNA levels and a significant decrease of TRH mRNA levels compared with the control group at every stress time point.The results suggest that the two genes differently respond to cold stress at the mRNA levels.And the different degrees of cold stress will produce different effects on the identical gene.