George Chrousos

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens | uoa · First Dept. Pediatrics

Background: The intricate relation between maternal stress and preterm birth remains a critical area of research. This abstract illuminates key findings from a systematic review that elucidates how psychosocial stress may drive preterm deliveries. Methods: A systematic review was carried out, examining studies published from 2003-2023. Pertinent...

In the last half-century, understanding pro- and antiinflammatory actions as opposite biological effects (“a tug of war”) has become obsolete. • Rather, emerging evidence suggests a more complex relation between pro- and antiinflammatory actions, with complementary coregulation (dualism), respectively, between the glucocorticoid (GC)- activated glu...

In critical illness, glucocorticoid (GC) receptor alpha (GC-GRα) regulatory and coregulatory actions are associated with an enormous bioenergetic and metabolic cost, and GC-GRα’s function is codependent with (i) mitochondrial cell bioenergetic and adaptation functions and (ii) reserves of essential micronutrients. ° Crosstalk between neuroendocrine...

The human microbiome plays an integral role in health. In particular, it is important for the development, differentiation and maturation of the immune system, 70% of which resides in the intestinal mucosa. Microbiome studies conducted to date have revealed an association between disturbances in the microbiota (dysbiosis) and various pathological d...

Disclosure: N. Papadopoulou: None. M. Arkoumani: None. I. Papassotiriou: None. A. Mantzou: None. G.P. Chrousos: None. N. Tentolouris: None. C. Kanaka-Gantenbein: None. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a frequent autoimmune disease in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood and may cause microvascular complications. Several studies have shown that increa...

Disclosure: N. Papadopoulou-Marketou: None. A. Papageorgiou: None. G. Vavetsis: None. T. Panagiotis: None. G.P. Chrousos: None. Introduction: Osteoporosis is a chronic condition characterized by a decrease in bone density and deterioration of microarchitecture. It has been associated with a high bone-fracture risk, an increased mortality, and vast...

Gout is a chronic disease frequently associated with lifestyle; its prevalence is increasing in Western societies, as well as in the Middle East. Apart from its partial genetic features, diet accounts for 12% of the causality of the disease, while purine-rich foods contribute decisively to its development and evaluation. The influential Persian phy...

Background: The immunological responses to exercise and the corresponding adaptations in high-level sports have become an important issue, from both the health and the physical performance points of view. A better understanding of the immune responses to exercise and chronic exercise training may benefit athletes and improve physical performance an...

More than 30 years ago, in discussions with the late Wylie Vale and other colleagues, we raised the potential usefulness of an oral, micromolecular corticotropin-releasing hormone or factor (CRH or CRF) antagonist in a long series of disorders characterized by increased CRH secretion, with one of them being classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (C...

There have been numerous attempts to establish a correlation between obesity and stress, inflammatory, and dysmetabolism biomarkers in children and adolescents. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of existing studies to shed light on the elusive correlations of childhood and adolescent obesity with physiological indicators of stress, inflammation, a...

Evidence is limited regarding the effects of holistic programs on work-related stress, anxiety, and depressive symptomatology. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the Pythagorean Self-Awareness Intervention (PSAI) on stress and mental health characteristics of civil servants in Crete, Greece. This was a single arm interventional study with...

Stress is common in childhood and an important factor that affects behavior later in adulthood. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of the Pythagorean Self-Awareness Intervention (PSAI), a holistic "cognitive reconstruction" technique to assess primary school children's stress levels, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and body mass i...

Both shame and guilt are self-conscious negative emotions claiming self-representations and self-awareness. Growing evidence indicates that these pessimistic emotions are associated to stress and stress-related disorders. The aim of this study was to translate and investigate the validity and reliability of the State Shame and Guilt Scale (SSGS) in...

Aroma extracts from plant species have been utilized since ancient times for a variety of discomforting circumstances. Aromatherapy is a recognized complementary therapeutic treatment performed in various ways such as massage or dermal application, with its main uses involving relaxation, pain relief, and stress management. Several studies have out...

This article provides a systematic review of studies evaluating the effect of meditation on the Default Mode Network (DMN). The review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. A literature search of PubMed, Scopus, and Embase was conducted up to June 2020. Search terms included default mode network or DMN and meditation. A total of 306 article...

Many studies have shown the effect of dance to the brain. It seems that long-term practice modulates brain plasticity and visuomotor skills, as it activates the Action Observation Network (AON). The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate potential differences in the brain activity (visuomotor skills) between professional dancers and non-danc...

Higher education's expectations place demands on students' attainment, leading them to experience stress and anxiety, which negatively affect their academic improvement and life satisfaction. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate (a) if mindfulness as an inner ability is related to academic attainment, through dependent variables, in...

The purpose of this research study was to obtain greater insight into the associations of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma-exposed experiences with the development of offending behavior in adolescents. Using the PubMed and Scopus databases, we performed a systematic review of recent cross-sectional studies between 2016 and 2022, inv...

Despite ample experimental data indicating a role of inflammatory mediators in the behavioral and neurobiological manifestations elicited by exposure to physical and psychologic stressors, causative associations between systemic low-grade inflammation and central nervous system inflammatory processes in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients...

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most prevalent human malignancies and a global health concern with a poor prognosis despite some therapeutic advances, highlighting the need for a better understanding of its molecular etiology. The genomic landscape of OSCC is well-established and recent research has focused on miRNAs, which regula...

Introduction: The intake of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and specific antagonists of angiotensin II receptors, widely used as antihypertensive drugs, significantly reduces the risk of developing basal cell carcinoma (BCC), highlighting the possible tumorigenic role of angiotensin II (AngII). We present here the investigated genet...

TANK-binding kinase 1 protein (TBK1) is a kinase that belongs to the IκB (IKK) family. TBK1, also known as T2K, FTDALS4, NAK, IIAE8, and NF-κB, is responsible for the phosphorylation of the amino acid residues, serine and threonine. This enzyme is involved in various key biological processes, including interferon activation and production, homeosta...

Breast milk is the ideal food for the premature and mature babies and has undoubtedly immediate and ultimate benefits. Among other things, it protects against infections, reduces the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis and retinopathy of the premature babies, improves neurodevelopmental outcome, and reduces the risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome...

Exploring the origin of plastids is an interesting theme for study because it enhances our knowledge of the basis of photosynthesis in flora. Plastids, which are organelles, are actually the major sites of photosynthesis in eukaryotic cells. Plastids are also every chloroplast which contains cytoplasmic organelles, enabling the harvesting and conve...

Introduction: Ectodermal dysplasias are a group of >200 clinically and congenitally heterogeneous disorders characterized by abnormal development in the ectodermal structures, such as hair, nails, teeth, and sweat glands. We report here the clinical and molecular genetic analysis of five Greek families with different types of ectodermal dysplasia...

Mental disorders are strongly connected with several psychiatric conditions including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorder, and suicides. There are many biological conditions and pathways that define these complicated illnesses. For example, eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that require the intervention...

Craniofacial development is a complex process involving several signaling pathways, including the one regulated by the TGF-beta (TGF-β) superfamily of growth factors. Isoforms of TGF-β play a vital part in embryonic development, notably in craniofacial patterning. Consequently, pathogenic variants in their coding genes may result in a variety of or...

All living organisms have been programmed to maintain a complex inner equilibrium called homeostasis, despite numerous adversities during their lifespan. Any threatening or perceived as such stimuli for homeostasis is termed a stressor, and a highly conserved response system called the stress response system has been developed to cope with these st...

SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus responsible for one of the most serious, modern worldwide pandemics, with lasting and multifaceted effects. By late 2021, SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 180 million people and has killed more than 3 million. The virus gains entrance to human cells through binding to ACE2 via its surface spike protein and causes a comp...

Objective: Synthesis of functional MRI (fMRI) and functional connectivity (FC) analysis data on human stress system (SS) function, as it relates to the dynamic function of the Salience (SN), Default Mode (DMN) and Central Executive (CEN) networks. Methods: Systematic search of Medline, Scopus, Clinical Trials.gov, and Google Scholar databases of...

Cognitive and behavioral disorders are subgroups of mental health disorders. Both cognitive and behavioral disorders can occur in people of different ages, genders, and social backgrounds, and they can cause serious physical, mental, or social problems. The risk factors for these diseases are numerous, with a range from genetic and epigenetic facto...

The dramatic fluctuations in the energy demands of living organisms by the rhythmic succession of night and day on our planet has prompted a geophysical evolutionary need for a biological temporal organization necessary for maintenance of homeostasis and adaptation to environmental changes across phylogeny. The intrinsic circadian system (CS) repre...

Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) are multipotent neural stem cells (NSCs) capable of self-renewing and differentiating into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. In the postnatal/adult brain, NPCs are primarily located in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricles (LVs) and subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG)...

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most prevalent human malignancies and a global health concern with a poor prognosis despite therapeutic advances, highlighting the need for a better understanding of its molecular background. The genomic landscape of OSCC is well-established and recent research has focused on miRNAs, which regulate...

Glucocorticoids were named by Hans Hugo Bruno Selye, the modern father of stress concepts, for their important role in glucose metabolism [...]

Ewing sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that develops in the bones and soft tissues. Drug therapy represents an extensively used modality for the treatment of sarcomas. However, cancer cells tend to develop resistance to antineoplastic agents, thereby posing a major barrier in treatment effectiveness. Thus, there is a need to uncover the molecular m...

Ankyloblepharon-ectodermal defects-cleft lip/palate (AEC) syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant disorder. AEC is caused by mutations in the TP63 gene that encodes the tumor suppressor p63 protein, itself involved in the regulation of epidermal proliferation, development, and differentiation. We present here a typical AEC case of a four-year-old gir...

Cafe-au-lait macules are the most distinctive clinical finding in neurofibromatosis type I. The aim of this prospective study of Greek children diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type I was to describe the dermatological phenotype and to analyse the characteristics of cafe-au-lait macules and their association with genotype. Pigment intensity and mel...

Background & objective The study aimed to assess the total prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), and separately, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) among adults and to determine their potential association with fructose consumption. Materials & Methods Data from the Hellenic National Nutrition and Health Survey (HNNHS) were incl...

Healthy eating has gained ground in people's daily lives in modern society. However, an overwhelming preoccupation with healthy eating can lead to a pathological form setting the ground for orthorexia nervosa. This study aimed to validate the Greek version of the Eating Habits Questionnaire (EHQ) in adults 18 to 65 years old. The EHQ evaluates orth...

Many people are worried about their social appearance. The fear of negative evaluation and judgment regarding one’s look in social circumstances is referred to as social appearance anxiety. Social appearance anxiety belongs to social anxiety. The aim of the present study was to validate the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) in the Greek langua...

Through several pathological mechanisms, chronic stress contributes to the development of “osteosarcopenic obesity”, a clinical syndrome that includes impairments in the structure and function of a patient’s bones, skeletal muscles, and adipose tissue. This syndrome, which could be alternatively called “chronic stress and inflammation syndrome”, ha...

Objective: To investigate the genetic etiology in a cohort of patients with a clinical, biochemical, and hormonal profile suggestive of a mild and transient form of PHA1. Patients - Methods: Twelve PHA1 patients with clinical and biochemical data were analyzed. The coding regions of NR3C2 and SCNN1A genes were sequenced. Human αENaC wt, αF226C and...

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a new epidemic which has presented an immense increase in recent decades, due to the rapid increase in obesity. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) significantly reduces life expectancy and is the main cause of death in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Strict glycemic control is a well-established method to combat microvascular C...

The teaching profession has always been challenging, while for various reasons the magnitude of observed stress in teachers has been continually growing over time. This study was conducted to demonstrate the relevance of stress in this professional group and to generate evidence for the benefit of primary school teachers and, indirectly, their pupi...

Greek adolescent students experience high levels of educational stress during the school period. In this cross-sectional study, we examined various factors associated with educational stress in Greece. The study was conducted using a self-report questionnaire survey in Athens, Greece, between November 2021 and April 2022. We studied a sample of 399...

Financial stress can negatively affect a couple's relationship. The Dyadic Coping Inventory for Financial Stress (DCIFS) instrument assesses the way couples cope with financial stress. This study sought to validate the Dyadic Coping Inventory for Financial Stress (DCIFS) in Greek. The sample included 152 Greek couples (mean age: 42.82 ± 11.94). Con...

Background: During recent COVID-19 pandemic, health professionals were faced with a tremendous workload and had to make difficult decisions. As in similar pandemics in the past, health professionals had reported anxiety, low mood and increased stress, resulting in psychological distress.

Social appearance anxiety is a type of social anxiety that is associated with body image perception and exacerbated by the use of social media, leading to feelings of loneliness. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relations between social appearance anxiety, use of social media, and feelings of loneliness in Greek adolesce...

Introduction: Myopathies are heterogeneous neuromuscular diseases of genetic and/or inflammatory etiology that affect both cardiac and skeletal muscle. We investigated the prevalence of cardiac inflammation in patients with myopathies, cardiovascular symptoms, and normal echocardiography using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). Methods: We...

This research outlines the initial validation of a new instrument to quantify academic stress, the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA). A total of 399 students (61.9% females, 38.1% males), with a mean age of 16.3 years, participated in the research protocol. Cronbach's α for the total 16-item ESSA scale was 0.878, suggesting good relia...

Background: Heatwaves represent the main indices of climate change, while mortality is one of the established markers of their human effects. Populations adapt to temperature variations/challenges differently for unknown reasons. Thus, heatwave evaluations should be enriched by historical context and local data, to allow better precision and predic...

This pilot repeated measures study aims to evaluate the dynamics of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, and/or their interplay with low-level inflammation in healthy schoolchildren during consecutive extrinsic stimuli. Twenty healthy schoolchildren and adolescents aged 11–14 years (12.5 ± 1.5) were con...

Genes with similar expression patterns in a set of diverse samples may be considered coexpressed. Human Gene Coexpression Analysis 2.0 (HGCA2.0) is a webtool which studies the global coexpression landscape of human genes. The website is based on the hierarchical clustering of 55,431 Homo sapiens genes based on a large-scale coexpression analysis of...

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential effect of solar energy on vascular stroke mortality in a Greek region by using neural networks analysis. The time period studied was from 1985 to 1989. We employed the Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitoring (ACRIM) data as the main representatives of total solar irradiance (TSI) and cor...

Hellenic Institute for Pediatric, Adolescent and Adult Multiple Sclerosis, EIPEES

bstract Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Greek general surgeons faced a heavy workload and difficult decisions as they were redirected from surgical to COVID-related care. Similar to other pandemics in the past, Greek general surgeons reported experiencing low mood, increased stress, and anxiety, leading to psychological distress. Aim: Thi...

In the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we created and implemented from November 2020 to February 2021 a monthly educational pilot program of philosophical management of stress based on Science, Humanism and Epicurean Pragmatism, which was offered to employees of 26 municipalities in the Prefecture of Attica, Greece. The program named “Philos...

Epicurus used an empirical and sensualistic approach to knowledge, creating a consistent, naturalistic, pragmatic and consequentialistic philosophy. The scientific observations of the last centuries have confirmed the basic principles of Epicurean physics, as well the psychotherapeutic approach of Epicurean ethics, which fits human nature. We know...

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare and severe condition that follows benign COVID-19. We report autosomal recessive deficiencies of OAS1 , OAS2 , or RNASEL in five unrelated children with MIS-C. The cytosolic dsRNA-sensing OAS1 and OAS2 generate 2′-5′-linked oligoadenylates (2-5A) that activate the ssRNA-degrading RNase...

Over the past few decades, research at the molecular level has focused on the part of the genome that does not encode protein sequences. Since the discovery of transcriptional evidence from the hitherto considered 'junk' DNA, this region of the genome, which is currently termed dark DNA, is constantly gaining interest. The term borrows an analogy f...

A plethora of studies show that exposure of living organisms to man-made polarized and coherent electromagnetic fields (EMFs), especially in the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) and the microwave/Radio Frequency (RF) bands, may lead to oxidative stress (OS) and DNA damage. DNA damage is associated with mutations, cell senescence, cell death, infertili...

Endocrine disorders represent a large component of the so-called “chronic non-communicable diseases” , which are responsible for the lion share of morbidity and mortality in contemporary societies. As discussed in this retrospective collection of articles, solid evidence from diabetes mellitus, the exemplar of common chronic endocrine disorders, hi...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that has a significant association with age. Despite its increasing incidence in the population, the etiology of the disease remains poorly understood, and there are currently no effective treatments readily available. The main genes that are associated with AD are the amyloid precursor prote...

Background Two rotavirus (RV) vaccines were licensed in Greece in late 2006 and included in the national immunisation programme in 2012. Aim To study the epidemiology and genotype distribution of RV in children during the post-vaccination period and assess the impact of increased vaccination coverage. Methods In a prospective multicentre hospital...

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by severe motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. Patients of all ages can present with a dysfunction of the nervous system, which leads to the progressive loss of movement control and disabilities in speech, swallowing, communications, etc. The molecular basis of the diseas...

«We must avoid with our utmost endeavour and amputate with fire and sword and by all other means: from the body, sickness; from the soul, ignorance; from the belly, luxury; from the city, sedition; from the family, discord; and from all things, excess» (Pythagoras of Samos, circa 569 -475 BC).

The synthesis and release of glucocorticoids in living organisms are related to their response to unfavorable stressful conditions in order to maintain homeostatic functions and survive. One such hormone in humans is cortisol, which is produced by the hypothalamic‑pituitary‑adrenal cortex axis and binds with the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) followi...

Rare cardiovascular diseases (RCDs) have low incidence but major clinical impact. RCDs’ classification includes Class I—systemic circulation, Class II—pulmonary circulation, Class III—cardiomyopathies, Class IV—congenital cardiovascular diseases (CVD), Class V—cardiac tumors and CVD in malignancy, Class VI—cardiac arrhythmogenic disorders, Class VI...

Viral infections constitute a fundamental and continuous challenge for the global scientific and medical community, as highlighted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In combination with prophylactic vaccines, the development of safe and effective antiviral drugs remains a pressing need for the effective management of rare and common pathogenic virus...