2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Anatomical and functional analysis of medial preoptic area of hypothalamus, the center of mammalian parental behavior

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20890287
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Start-up)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Psychiatric science
Research Institution	The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
Principal Investigator	YOSHIDA Sachine The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, 黒田研究ユニット, 研究員 (90513458)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2009
Keywords	養育行動 / ノックアウトマウス / 視床下部 / 内側視索前野
Research Abstract	The brain center of parental behavior is believed to locate in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) of hypothalamus. The present study demonstrated that neurons of anterior commissural nucleus in the dorsolateral MPOA showed the activation during the parental behavior in mice. ACN contained oxytocin (OXT) and thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) immunoreactive neurons. We examined the parental behavior using OXT or TRH knockout mice and double knockout mice. Nest building and pup retrieving behaviors were used as an index for the evaluation of parental behavior. In the preliminary results, however, any significant difference in the parental behavior of the OXT and TRH double knockout mice could not be detected. Further studies with higher sensitivity will be needed in future.