Estrogen Withdrawal Increases Postpartum Anxiety via Oxytocin Plasticity in the Paraventricular Hypothalamus and Dorsal Raphe Nucleus.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Estrogen increases dramatically during pregnancy but quickly drops below prepregnancy levels at birth and remains suppressed during the postpartum period. Clinical and rodent work suggests that this postpartum drop in estrogen results in an estrogen withdrawal state that is related to changes in affect, mood, and behavior. How estrogen withdrawal affects oxytocin (OT) neurocircuitry has not been examined.

Methods

We used a hormone-simulated pseudopregnancy followed by estrogen withdrawal in Syrian hamsters, a first for this species. Ovariectomized females were given daily injections to approximate hormone levels during gestation and then withdrawn from estrogen to simulate postpartum estrogen withdrawal. These hamsters were tested for behavioral assays of anxiety

SUBMITTER: Hedges VL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8052262 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature