The Effect of Glucocorticoid and Glucocorticoid Receptor Interactions on Brain, Spinal Cord, and Glial Cell Plasticity

Table 1

Morphological plasticity after GC-GR interaction varies with stress and cell type. The paucity of studies in astrocytes and microglia highlights the need for additional studies.

Stress type	Duration	Species	Sex	Neurons	Schwann cells	Microglia	Oligodendrocytes	Astrocytes
Immobilization	Chronic	Rat	♂	Atrophy, CA3 hippocampus [29, 30]	—	—	—	—
				Hypertrophy, basolateral amygdala [30]
Restraint	Chronic	Rat	♂	Decreased dendritic length and spine density, medial prefrontal cortex [34]	—	—	—	—
Unpredictable stress	Chronic	Rat	♂	Decreased dendritic length, basolateral amygdala [30]	—	—	—	—
Psychosocial stress	Chronic	Tree shrew	♂	Decreased dendritic arborization, CA3 hippocampus [50]	—	—	—	Reduced astrocyte area, number, somal volume, protrusion length, hippocampus [69]
Maternal separation	Chronic	Rat	♂	Atrophy, basal dendritic tree, reduced spine density, apical & basal dendrites layer II/III pyramidal neurons [51]	—	—	—	—
Corticosterone injection	Chronic	Mouse	♂	—	Increased rate of myelination, sciatic nerve [56]	—	—	Reduced astrocyte area, number, somal volume, protrusion length, hippocampus [68]
		Rat			—		Decreased proliferation of NG2 cells [64]	—
Restraint + spared nerve injury	Acute	Mouse	♀	—	—	Increased reactivity, dorsal horn [28]	—	—
Repeated social defeat	Chronic	Mouse	♂	—	—	Hypertrophy, medial amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, paraventricular nucleus [27]	—	—
Synthetic glucocorticoid injection	Chronic	Human	♂/♀	—	—	—	Increased CNS myelination [65]	—