Stress at its best: the 1st Munich Winter Conference On Stress

Stress exposure is an integral part of life and an appropriate response to stressful situations is essential for adaptation and survival. At the same time, stress-associated disorders are among the leading burdens of disease worldwide. It is, therefore, crucial to investigate the adaptive as well as maladaptive consequences of stress exposure at all levels of cellular regulation, ranging from molecular (genetic and epigenetic) alterations to neuronal network function and behavior. We have therefore started a conference series, which brings together the leading scientists in the field of stress research, to discuss the latest advances and findings related to the question: How does stress exposure at various developmental stages and intensities affect the body in health as well as in disease? The current special issue features a number of reviews and research articles inspired by the first meeting of this series, the 1st Munich Winter Conference on Stress, which took place in March 2017.

The conference was structured around several sessions, covering the following aspects: (1) Regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, (2) Central regulation of the stress response, (3) Stress, anxiety, and fear, (4) Epigenetic programming of the stress response, and (5) Stress and disease. Importantly, a big focus was put on young investigators, who were given ample time to present their findings in a “Hot Topics” session. Consequently, this special issue is framed by an excellent “Early career investigators perspective” by Anand Gururajan, Aron Kos and Juan Pablo Lopez (Gururajan et al., 2018). This issue further addresses the important role of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) balance. Karen Mifsud and Hans Reul challenge some of the existing assumptions about classical MR and GR function and review new insights in how these receptors regulate neuronal physiology and activity (Mifsud & Reul, 2018). Similarly, Julia Gjerstad, Stafford Lightman, and Francensca Spiga, highlight the intriguing role of glucocorticoid feedback in shaping ultradian HPA axis pulsatility (Gjerstad et al., 2018). They discuss novel data extending our understanding of how GR and MR co-chaperones, such as FKBP51, mediate effects of glucocorticoid feedback on HPA axis pulsatility and contribute to stress-related disease risk. Marianela Masis-Calvo, Inga Neumann, and colleagues review three different rodent models of social stress, which is not only one of the more severe stressors in rodents, but also arguably the main source of stress-related psychiatric disorders in humans. They highlight the insights gained from these highly useful and clinically relevant animal models of psychosocial stress, which will be a very useful resource for other scientists planning to implement one of these models in their own research (Masis-Calvo et al., 2018).

The special issue is rounded off by four research articles presenting highly relevant new data and perspectives. First, Sophie Walker and Carmen Sandi present findings highlighting the importance of how stress during relevant developmental time windows – in this case, adolescence and puberty – shape adult aggression and social behavior in concert with genetic predispositions for high or low HPA axis reactivity (Walker & Sandi, 2018). Along the same line, Brittany Smith, Jim Herman, and colleagues report that adolescent environmental enrichment prevents behavioral and physiological consequences of adolescent chronic stress exposure specifically in female rats, highlighting the importance of gender and studying sex-specific differences in stress (patho)physiology (Smith et al., 2017). Further, Oliver Sturman, Pierre-Luc Germain, and Johannes Bohacek emphasize the importance of including all possible measures from the behavioral repertoire of test animals in the analysis, as they often carry important information about the animal and the impact of stress exposure. In this specific case, exploratory rearing in an open field arena is often a neglected parameter in many studies employing open field testing but is shown to be highly sensitive to stress, indicative of anxiety and relatively stable across multiple test sessions (Sturman et al., 2018). Finally, another important methodological aspect is underlined in the paper by Sonia Cavigelli, Joshua Smyth, and colleagues, related to the often-used chronic mild stress paradigm in male rats (Cavigelli et al., 2018). Here, the authors show how the timing of the stress exposure – either clustered or dispersed – significantly and differentially affects the outcome of the chronic mild stress paradigm on depression-like behavior and glucocorticoid negative feedback.

Overall, this special issue gives an overview of the diverse topics presented at the 1st Munich Winter Conference on Stress. Due to the success of the meeting, it was decided to establish this meeting series as a pendant to the North-American Neurobiology of Stress Workshops and hold it in an alternating fashion, every other year. The 2nd Munich Winter Conference on Stress will, therefore, be held from 17th to 19th March 2019 and will again present state-of-the-art research at the cutting edge of this important field. More information can be found on the conference web page: http://www.psych.mpg.de/2150097/winterconfstress.

Mathias V. Schmidt
Department of Stress Neurobiology and Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
[email protected]

Alon Chen
Department of Stress Neurobiology and Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel