Molecular-cellular and hormonal mechanisms of induced tolerance of the brain to extreme environmental factors

This review presents the results of our own studies and published data on a current problem of neurobiology and basic medicine - discovery of the mechanisms of increases in the resistance of the brain to the effects of extreme factors. Most attention is paid to the molecular-cellular and hormonal mechanisms of hypoxic preconditioning-induced increases in the tolerance of the brain to presentation of harmful hypoxia and psychoemotional and traumatic stress. The basic hormonal and intracellular proadaptive cascade processes mediating the neuroprotective actions of hypoxic preconditioning are considered. The dynamics of molecular-level developmental mechanisms of induced tolerance of vulnerable brain formations (hippocampus, neocortex), including the phases of induction, transformation, and expression, are assessed. New data on preconditioning-related "cross-tolerance" of the brain, increasing the resistance of the brain not only to hypoxia, but also to different types of stressors, are presented. A first description of the neuroprotective effects of hypoxic post-conditioning is provided. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.