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Synthetic Oxytocin and Vasopressin Act Within the Central Amygdala to Exacerbate Aggression in Female Wistar Rats

Exacerbated aggression is a high-impact, but poorly understood core symptom of several psychiatric disorders, which can also affect women. Animal models have successfully been employed to unravel the neurobiology of aggression. However, despite increasing evidence for sex-specificity, little is know...

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Autores principales: Oliveira, Vinícius E. de M., de Jong, Trynke R., Neumann, Inga D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9158429/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35663559
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.906617
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author Oliveira, Vinícius E. de M.
de Jong, Trynke R.
Neumann, Inga D.
author_facet Oliveira, Vinícius E. de M.
de Jong, Trynke R.
Neumann, Inga D.
author_sort Oliveira, Vinícius E. de M.
collection PubMed
description Exacerbated aggression is a high-impact, but poorly understood core symptom of several psychiatric disorders, which can also affect women. Animal models have successfully been employed to unravel the neurobiology of aggression. However, despite increasing evidence for sex-specificity, little is known about aggression in females. Here, we studied the role of the oxytocin (OXT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) systems within the central amygdala (CeA) on aggressive behavior displayed by virgin female Wistar rats using immunohistochemistry, receptor autoradiography, and neuropharmacology. Our data show that CeA GABAergic neurons are activated after an aggressive encounter in the female intruder test. Additionally, neuronal activity (pERK) negatively correlated with the display of aggression in low-aggressive group-housed females. Binding of OXT receptors, but not AVP-V1a receptors, was increased in the CeA of high-aggressive isolated and trained (IST) females. Finally, local infusion of either synthetic OXT or AVP enhanced aggression in IST females, whereas blockade of either of these receptors did not affect aggressive behavior. Altogether, our data support a moderate role of the CeA in female aggression. Regarding neuropeptide signaling, our findings suggest that synthetic, but not endogenous OXT and AVP modulate aggressive behavior in female Wistar rats.
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spelling pubmed-91584292022-06-02 Synthetic Oxytocin and Vasopressin Act Within the Central Amygdala to Exacerbate Aggression in Female Wistar Rats Oliveira, Vinícius E. de M. de Jong, Trynke R. Neumann, Inga D. Front Neurosci Neuroscience Exacerbated aggression is a high-impact, but poorly understood core symptom of several psychiatric disorders, which can also affect women. Animal models have successfully been employed to unravel the neurobiology of aggression. However, despite increasing evidence for sex-specificity, little is known about aggression in females. Here, we studied the role of the oxytocin (OXT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) systems within the central amygdala (CeA) on aggressive behavior displayed by virgin female Wistar rats using immunohistochemistry, receptor autoradiography, and neuropharmacology. Our data show that CeA GABAergic neurons are activated after an aggressive encounter in the female intruder test. Additionally, neuronal activity (pERK) negatively correlated with the display of aggression in low-aggressive group-housed females. Binding of OXT receptors, but not AVP-V1a receptors, was increased in the CeA of high-aggressive isolated and trained (IST) females. Finally, local infusion of either synthetic OXT or AVP enhanced aggression in IST females, whereas blockade of either of these receptors did not affect aggressive behavior. Altogether, our data support a moderate role of the CeA in female aggression. Regarding neuropeptide signaling, our findings suggest that synthetic, but not endogenous OXT and AVP modulate aggressive behavior in female Wistar rats. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-18 /pmc/articles/PMC9158429/ /pubmed/35663559 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.906617 Text en Copyright © 2022 Oliveira, de Jong and Neumann. 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 Neuroscience
Oliveira, Vinícius E. de M.
de Jong, Trynke R.
Neumann, Inga D.
Synthetic Oxytocin and Vasopressin Act Within the Central Amygdala to Exacerbate Aggression in Female Wistar Rats
title Synthetic Oxytocin and Vasopressin Act Within the Central Amygdala to Exacerbate Aggression in Female Wistar Rats
title_full Synthetic Oxytocin and Vasopressin Act Within the Central Amygdala to Exacerbate Aggression in Female Wistar Rats
title_fullStr Synthetic Oxytocin and Vasopressin Act Within the Central Amygdala to Exacerbate Aggression in Female Wistar Rats
title_full_unstemmed Synthetic Oxytocin and Vasopressin Act Within the Central Amygdala to Exacerbate Aggression in Female Wistar Rats
title_short Synthetic Oxytocin and Vasopressin Act Within the Central Amygdala to Exacerbate Aggression in Female Wistar Rats
title_sort synthetic oxytocin and vasopressin act within the central amygdala to exacerbate aggression in female wistar rats
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9158429/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35663559
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.906617
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