There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
It is well-established that levels of corticosterone sufficient to occupy Type II
glucocorticoid receptors produce a decrement in long-term potentiation (LTP) in the
dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in rats. In the present series of experiments we
investigate the interaction of corticosterone and the neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone
sulfate (DHEAS) on LTP in the rat dentate gyrus. In confirmation of previous studies,
we found that corticosterone (2 mg/kg) had decremental effects on LTP. However, simultaneous
injection of corticosterone and DHEAS (30 mg/kg) elicited excitatory post-synaptic
potentials and population spikes that were not significantly different from those
observed in control animals. The results are discussed in terms of the interaction
of the two hormones, the agonist effects of DHEAS on sigma receptors, and their relation
with the antidepressant effects of DHEA.