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The interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders

Oxytocin (OXT) neurons of the hypothalamus are at the center of several physiological functions, including milk ejection, uterus contraction, and maternal and social behavior. In lactating females, OXT neurons show a pattern of burst firing and inter‐neuron synchronization during suckling that leads...

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Autores principales: Leithead, Amanda B., Tasker, Jeffrey G., Harony‐Nicolas, Hala
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8951898/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34786775
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jne.13061
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author Leithead, Amanda B.
Tasker, Jeffrey G.
Harony‐Nicolas, Hala
author_facet Leithead, Amanda B.
Tasker, Jeffrey G.
Harony‐Nicolas, Hala
author_sort Leithead, Amanda B.
collection PubMed
description Oxytocin (OXT) neurons of the hypothalamus are at the center of several physiological functions, including milk ejection, uterus contraction, and maternal and social behavior. In lactating females, OXT neurons show a pattern of burst firing and inter‐neuron synchronization during suckling that leads to pulsatile release of surges of OXT into the bloodstream to stimulate milk ejection. This pattern of firing and population synchronization may be facilitated in part by hypothalamic glutamatergic circuits, as has been observed in vitro using brain slices obtained from male rats and neonates. However, it remains unknown how hypothalamic glutamatergic circuits influence OXT cell activity outside the context of lactation. In this review, we summarize the in vivo and in vitro studies that describe the synchronized burst firing pattern of OXT neurons and the implication of hypothalamic glutamate in this pattern of firing. We also make note of the few studies that have traced glutamatergic afferents to the hypothalamic paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei. Finally, we discuss the genetic findings implicating several glutamatergic genes in neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, thus underscoring the need for future studies to investigate the impact of these mutations on hypothalamic glutamatergic circuits and the OXT system.
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spelling pubmed-89518982022-03-25 The interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders Leithead, Amanda B. Tasker, Jeffrey G. Harony‐Nicolas, Hala J Neuroendocrinol Translational and Clinical Neuroendocrinology Oxytocin (OXT) neurons of the hypothalamus are at the center of several physiological functions, including milk ejection, uterus contraction, and maternal and social behavior. In lactating females, OXT neurons show a pattern of burst firing and inter‐neuron synchronization during suckling that leads to pulsatile release of surges of OXT into the bloodstream to stimulate milk ejection. This pattern of firing and population synchronization may be facilitated in part by hypothalamic glutamatergic circuits, as has been observed in vitro using brain slices obtained from male rats and neonates. However, it remains unknown how hypothalamic glutamatergic circuits influence OXT cell activity outside the context of lactation. In this review, we summarize the in vivo and in vitro studies that describe the synchronized burst firing pattern of OXT neurons and the implication of hypothalamic glutamate in this pattern of firing. We also make note of the few studies that have traced glutamatergic afferents to the hypothalamic paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei. Finally, we discuss the genetic findings implicating several glutamatergic genes in neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, thus underscoring the need for future studies to investigate the impact of these mutations on hypothalamic glutamatergic circuits and the OXT system. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-11-16 2021-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8951898/ /pubmed/34786775 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jne.13061 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Neuroendocrinology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Society for Neuroendocrinology. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Translational and Clinical Neuroendocrinology
Leithead, Amanda B.
Tasker, Jeffrey G.
Harony‐Nicolas, Hala
The interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders
title The interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders
title_full The interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders
title_fullStr The interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders
title_full_unstemmed The interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders
title_short The interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders
title_sort interplay between glutamatergic circuits and oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and its relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders
topic Translational and Clinical Neuroendocrinology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8951898/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34786775
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jne.13061
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