Preweaning paternal deprivation impacts parental responses to pups and alters the serum OT and CORT levels and OTR, V1AR, ER, D1R, D2R levels in relevant brain regions in adult mandarin voles

Although maternal separation and neonatal paternal deprivation have been found to exert a profound and persistent effects on the physiological and behavioural development of offspring, whether preweaning paternal deprivation (PPD) (from PND 10 to 21) affects maternal and parental responses to pups and the underlying neuroendocrine mechanism are under-investigated. Using monogamous mandarin voles (Microtus mandarinus), the present study found that PPD increased the latency to approach a pup-containing ball, decreased the total durations of sniffing and contacting a pup-containing ball and walking, and increased the total duration of inactivity in both sexes. Moreover, PPD decreased serum OT levels and increased CORT levels, but only in females. Furthermore, in both males and females, PPD decreased the expression of OTR mRNA and protein in the MPOA, NAcc, and mPFC, but increased it in the MeA and decreased the expression of ER mRNA and protein in the MPOA. PPD increased the expression of dopamine type I receptor (D1R) in the NAcc, but decreased it in the mPFC. PPD decreased dopamine type II receptor (D2R) in the NAcc both in males and females, but increased D2R in the mPFC in females and decreased D2R protein expression in males. Moreover, PPD decreased vasopressin 1a receptor (V1AR) in the MPOA, MeA and mPFC, but only in males. Our results suggest that the reduction of parental responses to pups induced by PPD may be associated with the sex-specific alteration of several neuro...
Source: Neuroendocrinology - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research