Mitochondrial morphology in the mouse adrenal cortex: Influence of chronic psychosocial stress

Mitochondria within the adrenal cortex play a key role in synthesizing steroid hormones. The adrenal cortex is organized in three functionally specialized zones (glomerulosa, fasciculata, and reticularis) that produce different classes of steroid hormones in response to various stimuli, including psychosocial stress. Given that the functions and morphology of mitochondria are dynamically related and respond to stress, we applied transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to examine potential differences in mitochondrial morphology under basal and chronic psychosocial stress conditions. We used the chronic subordinate colony housing (CSC) paradigm, a murine model of chronic psychosocial stress. Our findings quantitatively define how mitochondrial morphology differs among each of the three adrenal cortex zones under basal conditions, and show that chronic psychosocial stress mainly affected mitochondria in the zona glomerulosa, shifting their morphology towards the more typical glucocorticoid-producing zona fasciculata mitochondrial phenotype. Analysis of adrenocortical lipid droplets that provide cholesterol for steroidogenesis showed that chronic psychosocial stress altered lipid droplet diameter, without affecting droplet number or inter-organellar mitochondria-lipid droplet interactions. Together, our findings support the hypothesis that each adrenal cortex layer is characterized by morphologically distinct mitochondria and that this adrenal zone-specific mitochondrial morphology is sensitive to environmental stimuli, including chronic psychosocial stressors. Further research is needed to define the role of these stress-induced changes in mitochondrial morphology, particularly in the zona glomerulosa, on stress resilience and related behaviors.