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The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior

Transition into motherhood involves profound physiological and behavioral adaptations that ensure the healthy development of offspring while maintaining maternal health. Dynamic fluctuations in key hormones during pregnancy and lactation induce these maternal adaptations by acting on neural circuits...

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Autores principales: Georgescu, Teodora, Swart, Judith M., Grattan, David R., Brown, Rosemary S. E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8673487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34927138
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2021.767467
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author Georgescu, Teodora
Swart, Judith M.
Grattan, David R.
Brown, Rosemary S. E.
author_facet Georgescu, Teodora
Swart, Judith M.
Grattan, David R.
Brown, Rosemary S. E.
author_sort Georgescu, Teodora
collection PubMed
description Transition into motherhood involves profound physiological and behavioral adaptations that ensure the healthy development of offspring while maintaining maternal health. Dynamic fluctuations in key hormones during pregnancy and lactation induce these maternal adaptations by acting on neural circuits in the brain. Amongst these hormonal changes, lactogenic hormones (e.g., prolactin and its pregnancy-specific homolog, placental lactogen) are important regulators of these processes, and their receptors are located in key brain regions controlling emotional behaviors and maternal responses. With pregnancy and lactation also being associated with a marked elevation in the risk of developing mood disorders, it is important to understand how hormones are normally regulating mood and behavior during this time. It seems likely that pathological changes in mood could result from aberrant expression of these hormone-induced behavioral responses. Maternal mental health problems during pregnancy and the postpartum period represent a major barrier in developing healthy mother-infant interactions which are crucial for the child's development. In this review, we will examine the role lactogenic hormones play in driving a range of specific maternal behaviors, including motivation, protectiveness, and mother-pup interactions. Understanding how these hormones collectively act in a mother's brain to promote nurturing behaviors toward offspring will ultimately assist in treatment development and contribute to safeguarding a successful pregnancy.
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spelling pubmed-86734872021-12-16 The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior Georgescu, Teodora Swart, Judith M. Grattan, David R. Brown, Rosemary S. E. Front Glob Womens Health Global Women's Health Transition into motherhood involves profound physiological and behavioral adaptations that ensure the healthy development of offspring while maintaining maternal health. Dynamic fluctuations in key hormones during pregnancy and lactation induce these maternal adaptations by acting on neural circuits in the brain. Amongst these hormonal changes, lactogenic hormones (e.g., prolactin and its pregnancy-specific homolog, placental lactogen) are important regulators of these processes, and their receptors are located in key brain regions controlling emotional behaviors and maternal responses. With pregnancy and lactation also being associated with a marked elevation in the risk of developing mood disorders, it is important to understand how hormones are normally regulating mood and behavior during this time. It seems likely that pathological changes in mood could result from aberrant expression of these hormone-induced behavioral responses. Maternal mental health problems during pregnancy and the postpartum period represent a major barrier in developing healthy mother-infant interactions which are crucial for the child's development. In this review, we will examine the role lactogenic hormones play in driving a range of specific maternal behaviors, including motivation, protectiveness, and mother-pup interactions. Understanding how these hormones collectively act in a mother's brain to promote nurturing behaviors toward offspring will ultimately assist in treatment development and contribute to safeguarding a successful pregnancy. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8673487/ /pubmed/34927138 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2021.767467 Text en Copyright © 2021 Georgescu, Swart, Grattan and Brown. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Global Women's Health
Georgescu, Teodora
Swart, Judith M.
Grattan, David R.
Brown, Rosemary S. E.
The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior
title The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior
title_full The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior
title_fullStr The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior
title_full_unstemmed The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior
title_short The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior
title_sort prolactin family of hormones as regulators of maternal mood and behavior
topic Global Women's Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8673487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34927138
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2021.767467
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