Brain creatine functions to attenuate acute stress responses through GABAnergic system in chicks.

Abstract The involvement of brain creatine in the adaptation to acute stress responses was investigated in chicks. In experiment 1, brain creatine content of chicks exposed to social separation stress was significantly increased compared with control chicks. The effects of i.c.v. injection of creatine (2 μg) on vocalizations, spontaneous activity and plasma corticosterone concentration in chicks under social separation stress were investigated in experiment 2. All measurements were attenuated by the i.c.v. injection of creatine compared with the controls under separation stress. Creatine also significantly decreased the active posture, but increased the motionless eye-opened posture, compared with the control. To clarify the relationship between creatine function and GABA receptors, the i.c.v. co-injection of creatine with picrotoxin, a GABA-A receptor antagonist, or CGP54626, a GABA-B receptor antagonist, was investigated in experiments 3 and 4. The effects of creatine on vocalizations and spontaneous activity were attenuated by co-injection of picrotoxin. In this case, active postures decreased by creatine were recovered by co-injection with picrotoxin. However, these effects were not obtained with CGP54626. The results suggest that central creatine functions within the CNS to attenuate the acute stress response by acting through GABA-A receptors in chicks.