Stress load and nerve growth factor

In the Russian work, rats under long unpredictable stress lost their taste for sweet water, grew enlarged adrenal glands and dropped their hippocampal BDNF, and Melanotan II reversed or blunted all three. BDNF maintains and rebuilds synapses, which is why it matters beyond mood. This is the least known part of the molecule and the part that comes almost entirely from Moscow. It argues that the melanocortin system sits across skin, appetite, arousal and stress together.