Abstract

In addition to the regulation of social and emotional behaviors, the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to stimulate neurogenesis in adult dentate gyrus; however, the mechanisms underlying the action of oxytocin are still unclear. Taking advantage of the conditional knockout mouse model, we show here that endogenous oxytocin signaling functions in a non-cell autonomous manner to regulate survival and maturation of newly generated dentate granule cells in adult mouse hippocampus via oxytocin receptors expressed in CA3 pyramidal neurons. Through bidirectional chemogenetic manipulations, we also uncover a significant role for CA3 pyramidal neuron activity in regulating adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus. Retrograde neuronal tracing combined with immunocytochemistry revealed that the oxytocin neurons in the paraventricular nucleus project directly to the CA3 region of the hippocampus. Our findings reveal a critical role for oxytocin signaling in adult neurogenesis.

Details

Title
Oxytocin stimulates hippocampal neurogenesis via oxytocin receptor expressed in CA3 pyramidal neurons
Author
Yu-Ting, Lin 1 ; Chien-Chung, Chen 2 ; Huang, Chiung-Chun 2 ; Nishimori, Katsuhiko 3 ; Hsu, Kuei-Sen 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan 
2  Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan 
3  Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan 
4  Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Ph.D. Program for Neural Regenerative Medicine, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan 
Pages
1-16
Publication year
2017
Publication date
Sep 2017
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00675-5
ProQuest document ID
1938943728
Copyright
© 2017. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.