Stress, anxiety and peripheral benzodiazepine receptor mRNA levels in human lymphocytes.

Peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR) mRNA levels were measured in lymphocytes obtained from a cohort of university students and clinically diagnosed anxious patients. The average level of PBR mRNA was decreased in anxious patients compared to a control group. This data confirms previously published results, but it also indicates that PBR mRNA levels cannot be used as a sole diagnostic measure of anxiety because the range of the individual PBR mRNA levels of the anxious group overlapped the range of the PBR mRNA levels of the control group. PBR mRNA levels in students following academic examinations were increased in some individuals and decreased in others. In the same cohort of students individual levels of cortisol and prolactin were predominantly increased and decreased respectively. There was no correlation between the individual changes in the hormone levels or PBR mRNA, which suggests that each of these parameters is affected by different environmental and physiological factors. Lymphocyte PBR mRNA measurement is a useful additional methodology for studying human stress responses however, its use in clinical studies would require the elucidation of PBR's physiological role.

Dexamethasone, but not stress, induce measurable changes of mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor mRNA levels in rats.

The expression of the mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor gene was assayed by a semi-quantitative non-radioactive reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. The level of amplified mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor mRNA was expressed as a ratio of either glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) or beta-actin mRNA co-amplified in the same RT-PCR assay. The relative amounts of mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor RNA in several rat tissues were found to be similar to the previously reported relative amount of mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor binding sites. The level of these binding sites has also been reported to be altered by stress stimuli. In this study we specifically measured the effect of stress on the mRNA levels of the mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor as an alternative method to the binding assay in an attempt to understand the mechanism by which stress alters binding. Sprague-Dawley male rats were either forced to swim for 15 min in 18 degrees C water or restrained in a plastic cylinder for 45 min either once, or twice daily for 7 days. Neither the swim stress, nor acute or chronic restraint stress, caused a measurable statistically significant relative change in mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor mRNA in the adrenal gland, kidney, testis and olfactory bulb. However, daily treatment of rats for 7 days with 4 mg/kg of dexamethasone caused a significant decrease in mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor gene expression in adrenal glands. This finding and the measurement of the relative levels of mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor mRNA in the various tissues indicate that mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor density is regulated to some extent at the gene expression level. However, the lack of detectable stress-induced changes in mRNA levels for this receptor seem to indicate that either mRNA changes were below detectable levels or that other mechanisms may be involved in the previously reported stress-induced changes of mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor density. Because the focus of this work was on the regulation of mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor gene expression, ligand binding studies to determine changes in receptor densities were not performed.