Ventral premammillary nucleus as a critical sensory relay to the maternal aggression network


Autoria(s): Motta, Simone Cristina; Souza, Cibele Carla Guimarães de; Furigo, Isadora Clivatti; Sukikara, Marcia Harumi; Baldo, Marcus Vinicius Chrysostomo; Lonstein, Joseph S.; Canteras, Newton Sabino
Contribuinte(s)

UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

Data(s)

04/04/2014

04/04/2014

27/08/2013

Resumo

Maternal aggression is under the control of a wide variety of factors that prime the females for aggression or trigger the aggressive event. Maternal attacks are triggered by the perception of sensory cues from the intruder, and here we have identified a site in the hypothalamus of lactating rats that is highly responsive to the male intruder—the ventral premammillary nucleus (PMv). The PMv is heavily targeted by the medial amygdalar nucleus, and we used lesion and immediate-early gene studies to test our working hypothesis that the PMv signals the presence of a male intruder and transfers this information to the network organizing maternal aggression. PMv-lesioned dams exhibit significantly reduced maternal aggression, without affecting maternal care. The Fos analysis revealed that PMv influences the activation of hypothalamic and septal sites shown to be mobilized during maternal aggression, including the medial preoptic nucleus (likely to represent an important locus to integrate priming stimuli critical for maternal aggression), the caudal two-thirds of the hypothalamic attack area (comprising the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus and the adjacent tuberal region of the lateral hypothalamic area, critical for the expression of maternal aggression), and the ventral part of the anterior bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (presently discussed as being involved in controlling neuroendocrine and autonomic responses accompanying maternal aggression). These findings reveal an important role for the PMv in detecting the male intruder and how this nucleus modulates the network controlling maternal aggression.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Grant 05/59286-4

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Grant 11/02425-3

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

Identificador

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, v.110, n.35, p.14438-14443, 2013

http://www.producao.usp.br/handle/BDPI/44379

10.1073/pnas.1305581110

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305581110

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

National Academy of Sciences

Washington

Relação

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Direitos

openAccess

National Academy of Sciences

Palavras-Chave #Agressividade animal #Mães #Hipotálamo #Ratos
Tipo

article

original article

publishedVersion