Editorial: The HPA axis and aging: individual features, age-related pathology

The HPA axis and aging: individual features, age-related pathology With aging, the frequency of stress-related diseases, including mental, metabolic, cognitive, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative disorders, increases dramatically.Despite this generalized phenomenon, there are notable individual differences in both vulnerability and resilience to stress and stress-related pathologies.Despite the plethora of studies in stress research, the mechanisms underlying individual vulnerability to stress and agerelated diseases remain unclear.The HPA axis is a key modulator of both the endocrine and behavioral adaptation to stress, and dysfunction of the HPA axis can contribute to the development of various stress-dependent diseases.Function of the HPA axis deteriorates during aging both in basal conditions and in response to stress.However, the type and magnitude of HPA axis deterioration are not similar in all individuals and appear to be associated with different behavioral characteristics.In particular, a higher activity of the HPA axis has been noted in elderly individuals with depression and in non-human primates that exhibit depressionand anxiety-like behavior (DAB) (1-3).Therefore, studying the individual features of the aging HPA axis is important to identify individuals with increased vulnerability to stress and accelerated aging, as is developing a personalized approach for the prevention and treatment of stress-related pathology in the elderly.Here, we provide a brief editors' overview of the articles published in this field.The article by Goncharova et al. presents original data on the responses of the HPA axis to acute psycho-emotional stress exposure (ASE) in young and old female rhesus monkeys with standard healthy and DAB behavior under conditions of continuous constant lighting (CL) using LED lamps that are commonly encountered in offices and apartments.The unique findings were that CL reduces the cortisol (CORT) response to ASE applied in the afternoon (15.00-17.00h) and also disrupts the circadian rhythm of CORT secretion in all animals, regardless of age and behavior.The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, however, are age-dependent.In young animals, the transhypophyseal pathway mediates the effect, whereas in older animals the effect is mediated primarily by an extra-hypophyseal neural pathway.The effects of CL on Frontiers in Endocrinology frontiersin.