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Peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice

Behaviors are shaped by hormones, which may act either by changing brain circuits or by modifying sensory detection of relevant cues. Pup-directed behaviors have been previously shown to change via action of hormones at the brain level. Here, we investigated hormonal control of pup-induced activity...

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Autores principales: Nakahara, Thiago S., Camargo, Antonio P., Magalhães, Pedro H. M., Souza, Mateus A. A., Ribeiro, Pedro G., Martins-Netto, Paulo H., Carvalho, Vinicius M. A., José, Juliana, Papes, Fabio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7673031/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33203885
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77061-7
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author Nakahara, Thiago S.
Camargo, Antonio P.
Magalhães, Pedro H. M.
Souza, Mateus A. A.
Ribeiro, Pedro G.
Martins-Netto, Paulo H.
Carvalho, Vinicius M. A.
José, Juliana
Papes, Fabio
author_facet Nakahara, Thiago S.
Camargo, Antonio P.
Magalhães, Pedro H. M.
Souza, Mateus A. A.
Ribeiro, Pedro G.
Martins-Netto, Paulo H.
Carvalho, Vinicius M. A.
José, Juliana
Papes, Fabio
author_sort Nakahara, Thiago S.
collection PubMed
description Behaviors are shaped by hormones, which may act either by changing brain circuits or by modifying sensory detection of relevant cues. Pup-directed behaviors have been previously shown to change via action of hormones at the brain level. Here, we investigated hormonal control of pup-induced activity in the vomeronasal organ, an olfactory sensory structure involved in the detection of non-volatile chemosignals. Vomeronasal activity decreases as males switch from a pup-aggressive state to a non-aggressive parenting state, after they socially contact a female. RNA sequencing, qPCR, and in situ hybridization were used to identify expression, in the vomeronasal sensory epithelium, of candidate GPCR hormone receptors chosen by in silico analyses and educated guesses. After identifying that oxytocin and vasopressin receptors are expressed in the vomeronasal organ, we injected the corresponding hormones in mice and showed that oxytocin administration reduced both pup-induced vomeronasal activity and aggressive behavior. Conversely, injection of an oxytocin receptor antagonist in female-primed male animals, which normally exhibit reduced vomeronasal activity, significantly increased the number of active vomeronasal neurons. These data link oxytocin to the modulation of olfactory sensory activity, providing a possible mechanism for changes in male behavior after social experience with females.
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spelling pubmed-76730312020-11-19 Peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice Nakahara, Thiago S. Camargo, Antonio P. Magalhães, Pedro H. M. Souza, Mateus A. A. Ribeiro, Pedro G. Martins-Netto, Paulo H. Carvalho, Vinicius M. A. José, Juliana Papes, Fabio Sci Rep Article Behaviors are shaped by hormones, which may act either by changing brain circuits or by modifying sensory detection of relevant cues. Pup-directed behaviors have been previously shown to change via action of hormones at the brain level. Here, we investigated hormonal control of pup-induced activity in the vomeronasal organ, an olfactory sensory structure involved in the detection of non-volatile chemosignals. Vomeronasal activity decreases as males switch from a pup-aggressive state to a non-aggressive parenting state, after they socially contact a female. RNA sequencing, qPCR, and in situ hybridization were used to identify expression, in the vomeronasal sensory epithelium, of candidate GPCR hormone receptors chosen by in silico analyses and educated guesses. After identifying that oxytocin and vasopressin receptors are expressed in the vomeronasal organ, we injected the corresponding hormones in mice and showed that oxytocin administration reduced both pup-induced vomeronasal activity and aggressive behavior. Conversely, injection of an oxytocin receptor antagonist in female-primed male animals, which normally exhibit reduced vomeronasal activity, significantly increased the number of active vomeronasal neurons. These data link oxytocin to the modulation of olfactory sensory activity, providing a possible mechanism for changes in male behavior after social experience with females. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-11-17 /pmc/articles/PMC7673031/ /pubmed/33203885 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77061-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Nakahara, Thiago S.
Camargo, Antonio P.
Magalhães, Pedro H. M.
Souza, Mateus A. A.
Ribeiro, Pedro G.
Martins-Netto, Paulo H.
Carvalho, Vinicius M. A.
José, Juliana
Papes, Fabio
Peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice
title Peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice
title_full Peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice
title_fullStr Peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice
title_full_unstemmed Peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice
title_short Peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice
title_sort peripheral oxytocin injection modulates vomeronasal sensory activity and reduces pup-directed aggression in male mice
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7673031/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33203885
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77061-7
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