Paternal Care Impacts Oxytocin Expression in California Mouse Offspring and Basal Testosterone in Female, but Not Male Pups.

ABSTRACT: Natural variations in parenting are associated with differences in expression of several hormones and neuropeptides which may mediate lasting effects on offspring development, like regulation of stress reactivity and social behavior. Using the bi-parental California mouse, we have demonstrated that parenting and aggression are programmed, at least in part, by paternal behavior as adult offspring model the degree of parental behavior received in development and are more territorial following high as compared to low levels of care. Development of these behaviors may be driven by transient increases in testosterone following paternal retrievals and increased adult arginine vasopressin (AVP) immunoreactivity within the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) among high-care (HC) offspring.

SUBMITTER: Yohn CN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6123359 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature