Abstract
Multiple sequential actions, performed during parental behaviors, are essential elements of reproduction in mammalian species. We showed that neurons expressing melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) are more active in rodents of both sexes when exhibiting parental nursing behavior. Genetic ablation of the LHA-MCH neurons impaired maternal nursing. The post-birth survival rate was lower in pups born to female mice with congenitally ablated MCH neurons under control of tet-off system, exhibiting reduced crouching behavior. Virgin female and male mice with ablated MCH neurons were less interested in pups and maternal care. Chemogenetic and optogenetic stimulation of LHA-MCH neurons induced parental nursing in virgin female and male mice. LHA-MCH GABAergic neurons project fibres to the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN) neurons. Optogenetic stimulation of PVN induces nursing crouching behavior along with increasing plasma oxytocin levels. The hypothalamic MCH neural relays play important functional roles in parental nursing behavior in female and male mice.
Highlights
Multiple sequential actions, performed during parental behaviors, are essential elements of reproduction in mammalian species
Compared with the +/− controls, virgin females with ablated melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons were less interested in pups and maternal care similar to +/+ bigenic mothers (Fig. 1e)
These results suggest that the effect on the ablation of MCH neurons was slightly different in females and males
Summary
Multiple sequential actions, performed during parental behaviors, are essential elements of reproduction in mammalian species. We showed that neurons expressing melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) are more active in rodents of both sexes when exhibiting parental nursing behavior. Chemogenetic and optogenetic stimulation of LHA-MCH neurons induced parental nursing in virgin female and male mice. Further evidence showed that PVN neurons project anatomically posterior to the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA)[13] to regulate the level of melanin concentrating hormone (MCH)[14], a neuromodulator that integrates physiological f unctions[15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. Abolishing the expression of MCH will decrease maternal behaviors, especially in decreasing litter sizes[24] These observations suggest that MCH neurons mediate or modulate parental nursing behaviors, further research is needed to determine how MCH neurons are projected through a detailed investigation on parental behavior regulation
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