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Projection Sites of Medial Preoptic Area and Ventral Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis Neurons that Express Fos during Maternal Behavior in Female Rats
Abstract
Medial preoptic area (MPOA) and ventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (VBST) neurons are involved in maternal behavior, but the neural sites to which the maternally relevant neurons project have not been determined. Since MPOA and VBST neurons express Fos during maternal behavior, we used a double‐labeling immunocytochemical procedure to detect both Fos and a retrograde tracer, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), in order to determine where these Fos neurons project. On Day 4 postpartum, fully maternal females were separated from their litters. On Day 5, WGA was iontophoretically injected into one of the following regions known to receive MPOA and/or VBST input: Lateral septum, medial hypothalamus at the level of the ventromedial nucleus, lateral habenula, ventral tegmental area, retrorubral field, or periaqueductal gray. On Day 7, females received a 2‐h test with either pups or candy, after which they were perfused and their brains were processed for the detection of Fos and WGA. As expected, females tested with pups had more Fos‐containing neurons in the MPOA and VBST than did females tested with candy. After WGA injections into several brain sites, the number of double‐labeled cells observed in the MPOA and VBST was greater for the maternal females when compared to the non‐maternal females. Therefore, these results pinpointed neural circuits that were activated during maternal behavior. For the maternal females, Fos‐containing neurons in the MPOA projected most strongly to the medial hypothalamus at the level of the ventromedial nucleus and to the lateral septum, while Fos‐containing neurons in the VBST projected most strongly to the retrorubral field, ventral tegmental area, and medial hypothalamus. Although relatively few MPOA and VBST neurons which expressed Fos during maternal behavior projected to the periaqueductal gray, these Fos‐expressing neurons made up a relatively large proportion of the MPOA and VBST projection to the periaqueductal gray. This study suggests that MPOA and VBST efferents project to a variety of regions to promote full maternal responsiveness.
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“which are now known to activate c-Fos positive neurons51–53.”
From Vascular RAGE transports oxytocin into the brain to elicit its maternal bonding behaviour in mice (2019) · cites this paper as [51]
In the citing paper
“The classical studies of Numan showed c-Fos positive neurons are activated during the acquisition of postpartum maternal behaviours51.”
From Vascular RAGE transports oxytocin into the brain to elicit its maternal bonding behaviour in mice (2019) · cites this paper as [51]
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Mayer, H. S., Crepeau, M., Duque‐Wilckens, N., Torres, L. Y., Trainor, B. C., & Stolzenberg, D. S. (2019) · Journal of Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1111/jne.12734 · Cited by 12
Pavesi, E., Enck, M. C., Toledo, C. A. B., et al. (2007) · European Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05806.x · Cited by 11
“Neurons in the medial preoptic area and the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis that express Fos in female rats when they are actively caring for their pups have been shown to project to the PAG (Numan & Numan, 1997).”
BackgroundVilela, F. C., Ruginsk, S. G., de Melo, C. M., & Giusti‐Paiva, A. (2013) · Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1007/s00424-013-1238-8 · Cited by 12
“Additionally, postpartum BNST lesions disrupt maternal behaviour in a similar manner to the effects produced by MPOA lesions [34].”
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“maternal behavior include the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) [47–49], paraventricular nucleus (PVN) [50–52], nucleus accumbens [53–55], prefrontal cortex (PFC) [56–58], medial preoptic area (MPOA) [22, 57, 59–62], amygdala [60, 63, 64], and hippo-”
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Puska, G., Szendi, V., & Dobolyi, Á. (2024) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105683 · Cited by 9
“In further support of LS input from MPOA neurons activated by pup exposure, neurons in the rat MPOA expressing c-Fos were double-labelled following retrograde tracer injection into the LS (Numan and Numan, 1997).”
Sarihi, A., Emam, A. H., Panah, M. H., et al. (2015) · Neuroscience Letters · doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2015.07.050 · Cited by 9
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“60 This finding indicates that the MPOA-PAG pathway is also involved in the regulation of maternal behavior.”
Neural responses to pup calls and pup odors in California mouse fathers and virgin males
Wilson, K. M., Arquilla, A. M., Rosales-Torres, K. M., Hussein, M., Chan, M. G., Razak, K. A., & Wendy Saltzman, A. (2022) · Behavioural Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114024 · Cited by 7
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Fuentes, I., Morishita, Y., González-Salinas, S., Champagne, F. A., Uchida, S., & Shumyatsky, G. P. (2022) · Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnmol.2022.844295 · Cited by 8
“Indeed, it was shown that some of the neurons activated during nurturing behavior in the mPOA project to the VTA, which plays a central role in the reward system in the brain (Numan and Numan, 1997).”
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“The mPOA can influence NA function through a direct projection to it and indirectly through projections to the VTA (Simerly and Swanson 1988; Numan and Numan 1997; Geisler and Zahm 2005).”
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“The finding on the MPOA, MeA and VTA was consistent with many studies showing that pup cues increase Fos-LIR in these regions (Fleming and Walsh, 1994; Numan and Numan, 1995, 1997; Stack et al., 2000, 2002; Zhao and Li, 2012).”
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Mayer, H. S., Rosinger, Z. J., Kruithof, V. B., Mishra, S., BlackOwl Sr., A. L., & Stolzenberg, D. S. (2022) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2022.105129 · Cited by 2
“Considering the MPOA has inhibitory projections to the VMNvl (Fang et al., 2018; Kohl et al., 2018; Numan and Numan, 1997) and central MPOA lesions induce infanticide in female mice (Tsuneoka et al., 2013), it is likely that cells expressing c-Fos in the VMNvl, at least in female mice, are always…”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Numan, M., & Numan, M. J.
- Affiliations
- Boston College (US)
- Corresponding author
- Numan, Michael
- Venue
- Journal of Neuroendocrinology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1997-05
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 369-384
- ISSN
- 0953-8194 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2826
- OpenAlex
- W2116801697
- Cited by
- 149
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 12.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones
- Keywords
- maternal behavior, medial preoptic area, Fos expression, retrograde tracing, wheat germ agglutinin, lateral septum, ventromedial hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray, ventral tegmental area, retrorubral field, lateral habenula
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Female, Hypothalamus, Immunohistochemistry, Maternal Behavior, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Neural Pathways, Neurons, Preoptic Area, Wheat Germ Agglutinins, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos, Rats
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