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Knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice

The neuropeptide arginine‐vasopressin (AVP) has long been implicated in the regulation of social behaviour and communication, but the sources of AVP release relevant for behaviour have not been precisely determined. Ablations of the sexually dimorphic AVP cells within the bed nucleus of the stria te...

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Autores principales: Rigney, Nicole, Zbib, Adam, de Vries, Geert J., Petrulis, Aras
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9213575/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34978098
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jne.13083
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author Rigney, Nicole
Zbib, Adam
de Vries, Geert J.
Petrulis, Aras
author_facet Rigney, Nicole
Zbib, Adam
de Vries, Geert J.
Petrulis, Aras
author_sort Rigney, Nicole
collection PubMed
description The neuropeptide arginine‐vasopressin (AVP) has long been implicated in the regulation of social behaviour and communication, but the sources of AVP release relevant for behaviour have not been precisely determined. Ablations of the sexually dimorphic AVP cells within the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), which are more numerous in males, affect social behaviour differently in males and females. However, it is unknown whether these behavioural effects are caused by a reduction of AVP or of other factors associated with these cells. To test the role of AVP specifically, we used an shRNA viral construct to knock down AVP gene expression within the BNST of wild‐type male and female mice, using scrambled sequence virus as a control, and evaluated subsequent changes in social behaviours (social investigation, ultrasonic vocalization (USV), scent marking, copulation, and aggression), or anxiety‐like behaviours (elevated plus maze). We observed that, in males, knockdown of AVP expression in the BNST strongly reduced investigation of novel males, aggressive signalling towards other males (tail rattling, USV), and copulatory behaviour, but did not alter attack initiation, other measures of social communication, or anxiety‐like behaviours. In females, however, BNST AVP knockdown did not alter any of these behaviours. These results point to differential involvement of AVP derived from the BNST in social behaviour.
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spelling pubmed-92135752022-12-28 Knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice Rigney, Nicole Zbib, Adam de Vries, Geert J. Petrulis, Aras J Neuroendocrinol Original Article The neuropeptide arginine‐vasopressin (AVP) has long been implicated in the regulation of social behaviour and communication, but the sources of AVP release relevant for behaviour have not been precisely determined. Ablations of the sexually dimorphic AVP cells within the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), which are more numerous in males, affect social behaviour differently in males and females. However, it is unknown whether these behavioural effects are caused by a reduction of AVP or of other factors associated with these cells. To test the role of AVP specifically, we used an shRNA viral construct to knock down AVP gene expression within the BNST of wild‐type male and female mice, using scrambled sequence virus as a control, and evaluated subsequent changes in social behaviours (social investigation, ultrasonic vocalization (USV), scent marking, copulation, and aggression), or anxiety‐like behaviours (elevated plus maze). We observed that, in males, knockdown of AVP expression in the BNST strongly reduced investigation of novel males, aggressive signalling towards other males (tail rattling, USV), and copulatory behaviour, but did not alter attack initiation, other measures of social communication, or anxiety‐like behaviours. In females, however, BNST AVP knockdown did not alter any of these behaviours. These results point to differential involvement of AVP derived from the BNST in social behaviour. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-01-02 2022-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9213575/ /pubmed/34978098 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jne.13083 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 Original Article
Rigney, Nicole
Zbib, Adam
de Vries, Geert J.
Petrulis, Aras
Knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice
title Knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice
title_full Knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice
title_fullStr Knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice
title_full_unstemmed Knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice
title_short Knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice
title_sort knockdown of sexually differentiated vasopressin expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces social and sexual behaviour in male, but not female, mice
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9213575/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34978098
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jne.13083
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