Corticosterone levels reflect variation in metabolic rate, independent of 'stress'

Scientific Reports
Blanca JimenoSimon Verhulst

Abstract

Variation in glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) is often interpreted as reflecting 'stress', but this interpretation is subject of intense debate. GCs induce gluconeogenesis, and we hypothesized therefore that GC variation can be explained by changes in current and anticipated metabolic rate (MR). Alternatively, GC levels may respond to psychological 'stress' over and above its effect on metabolic rate. We tested these hypotheses in captive zebra finches, by inducing an increase in MR using a psychological stressor (noise), and compared its effect on corticosterone (CORT, the primary avian GC) with the effect induced by a decrease in ambient temperature increasing MR to a similar extent. We found the increase in CORT induced by the psychological stressor to be indistinguishable from the level expected based on the noise effect on MR. We further found that a handling and restraint stressor that increased CORT levels also resulted in increased blood glucose levels, corroborating a key assumption underlying our hypothesis. Thus, GC variation primarily reflected variation in energy expenditure, independently of psychological stress. GC levels have many downstream effects besides glucose mobilization, and we propose that these effects ca...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 27, 2019·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Lorin A Neuman-LeeSusannah S French
Mar 25, 2019·Oecologia·Amy A ShipleyBenjamin Zuckerberg
May 20, 2020·Journal of Comparative Physiology. B, Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology·Bibiana MontoyaSimon Verhulst
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Nov 20, 2020·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Caroline Isaksson
Mar 7, 2021·Clocks & Sleep·Rachel Van Drunen, Kristin Eckel-Mahan
Mar 25, 2021·Psychoneuroendocrinology·Maurizio SicorelloBeate Ditzen
Apr 2, 2021·Integrative Organismal Biology·Blanca JimenoCreagh Breuner
Jun 14, 2020·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Stefania CasagrandeMichaela Hau
Sep 25, 2019·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Małgorzata M LipowskaPaweł Koteja
Aug 18, 2020·Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology·Jaanis Lodjak, Simon Verhulst
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Aug 27, 2021·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Magali FrauendorfMartijn van de Pol
Oct 20, 2021·Integrative and Comparative Biology·Kasja MalkocMichaela Hau

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Software Mentioned

R package MuMIn
R
VetScan
R package lme4
R Core Team

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