The mineralocorticoid activity of corticosterone based on acute changes in urinary Na+/K+ ratios in adrenalectomized rats was 1000 times less than that of aldosterone. However, corticosterone had only kaliuretic actions whereas aldosterone had both antinatriuretic and kaliuretic properties. Corticosterone inhibited the antinatriuretic actions of aldosterone. Adrenalectomized rats infused contin...

The emerging amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, which is caused by the fungal pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, Bd), has caused mass mortalities of native amphibian populations globally. There have been no previous studies on the relationships between stress hormones in free-living amphibians and Bd infections. In this study, we measured urinary corticosterone metabolite concentrations...

Birds respond to deterioration in environmental conditions by elevating their corticosterone levels, which can enhance their survival. It is less clear if animals constantly living in energetically challenging environment show similar increases in adrenocortical function. Previous work has demonstrated that under controlled conditions black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) from northern ...

High corticosterone levels can have deleterious effects in developing avian embryos and chicks. Therefore, it may be adaptive for avian mothers to reduce corticosterone transfer to their eggs. However, until now, data about the active or/and passive role of mothers in corticosterone transfer to eggs are inconclusive. Here, we study maternal investment into A- and B-eggs of southern rockhopper p...

Avian eggs contain a variety of steroid hormones, which have been attributed as a tool for maternal phenotypic engineering. The majority of studies focuses on androgens, but also significant amounts of progesterone as well as other steroid hormones have been measured. The question if corticosterone is also present in eggs of chickens is currently under debate. The only analytical validation per...

Comparison of fluorescence intensities of corticosterone and cortisol in a variety of concentrations of sulphuric acid to ethanol has led to the finding that corticosterone gives several times as high fluorescence as cortisol in reagent consist ing of 6:4(v/v) sulphuric acid and ethanol, while it produces low fluorescence in comparison with cortisol in 9:1(v/v) sulphuric acid-ethanol reagent. T...

Coal combustion residues (CCRs) are documented to negatively impact oral morphology, growth, and development in larval amphibians. It is currently unclear what physiological mechanisms may mediate these effects. Corticosterone, a glucocorticoid hormone, is a likely mediator because when administered exogenously it, like CCRs, also negatively influences oral morphology, growth, and development i...

Glucocorticoids, secreted by the adrenals in response to stress, have profound effects on behavioural responsiveness to psychostimulant drugs. We have studied the critical time-window for the influence of corticosterone on behavioural sensitisation to cocaine in relation to i) the stage of behavioural sensitisation, and ii) the time of drug exposure. Previously, we have identified a mouse strai...

Although it appears that corticosterone may play an important role in determining vulnerability to drugs of abuse, few studies have examined drug effects on factors that affect corticosterone efficacy. Thus, studies were carried out to assess the effects of morphine on corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG), the major glucocorticoid binder in blood. Since CBG-bound hormone is thought to be physi...

We examined possible mechanisms underlying seasonal stress modulation in Lapland longspurs ( Calcarius lapponicus), a species that breeds and molts (the energetically costly replacement of feathers) in the Alaskan Arctic. Free-living Lapland longspurs show dramatically reduced maximal corticosterone release during molt compared with the breeding season, an effect lost in captive birds. Neither ...