@article{4e0c0781ea8a44a598e871d7c123a70f,
title = "Oxytocin Signaling in the Lateral Septum Prevents Social Fear during Lactation",
abstract = "Oxytocin (OXT)-mediated behavioral responses to social and stressful cues have extensively been studied in male rodents. Here, we investigated the capacity of brain OXT receptor (OXTR) signaling in the lateral septum (LS) to prevent social fear expression in female mice using the social-fear-conditioning paradigm. Utilizing the activated OXT system during lactation, we show that lactating mice did not express fear 24 hr after social fear conditioning. Supporting the role of OXTR signaling in the LS in attenuation of social fear, synthetic OXT infusion or overexpression of OXTR in the LS diminished social fear expression, whereas constitutive OXTR knockout severely impaired social fear extinction in virgin mice. Subsequently, both pharmacological blockade of local OXTRs in the LS and chemogenetic silencing of supraoptic nucleus OXTergic afferents to the LS increased social fear expression in lactating mice. Hence, LS-projecting OXT neurons suppress social fear in female mice. The highest activity of the brain oxytocin (OXT) system is found in lactation. Menon and co-authors show that specific OXT projections from the hypothalamus to the lateral septum (LS)—the integrating brain structure orchestrating social behavior—prevent fear expression in social-fear-conditioned lactating mice.",
keywords = "GABA, chemogenetics, cued fear conditioning, hypothalamus, lactation, lateral septum, oxytocin receptor, paraventricular nucleus, social fear conditioning, supraoptic nucleus",
author = "Rohit Menon and Thomas Grund and Iulia Zoicas and Ferdinand Althammer and Dominik Fiedler and Verena Biermeier and Bosch, {Oliver J.} and Yuichi Hiraoka and Katsuhiko Nishimori and Marina Eliava and Valery Grinevich and Neumann, {Inga D.}",
note = "Funding Information: The authors thank Dr. Marta Busnelli and Dr. Bice Chini (Milan, Italy) and Dr. Harold Gainer (NIH, USA) for providing us with mOTR-PCDNA3.1 plasmid and OXT antibody, respectively. We thank Dr. Maurice Manning (Ohio, Toledo, USA) for generously providing the OXTR-A and Thomas Splettstoesser (SciStyle; http://www.scistyle.com ) for preparation of Figure 6 . We would also like to thank Rodrigue Maloumby, Martina Fuchs, Lucia Leehr, and Marianella Masis Calvo for their excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Graduate School (GRK-2174), grants NE465/19-1 and NE465/27-1 (to I.D.N.); within the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1134 and 1158, grants DFG-ANR GR 3619/7-1 and DFG-SNF GR 3619/8-1 ; the Chica and Heinz Schaller Research Foundation and Human Frontiers Science Program RGP0019/2015 (to F.A., M.E., and V.G.); the Bayerische Forschungsstiftung grant DOK-157-13 (to R.M. and I.D.N.); the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF ; OptiMD to I.D.N.); and the Integrated Research on Neuropsychiatric Disorders grant in the Strategic Research Program for Brain Sciences by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (to K.N. and Y.H.). Funding Information: The authors thank Dr. Marta Busnelli and Dr. Bice Chini (Milan, Italy) and Dr. Harold Gainer (NIH, USA) for providing us with mOTR-PCDNA3.1 plasmid and OXT antibody, respectively. We thank Dr. Maurice Manning (Ohio, Toledo, USA) for generously providing the OXTR-A and Thomas Splettstoesser (SciStyle; http://www.scistyle.com) for preparation of Figure 6. We would also like to thank Rodrigue Maloumby, Martina Fuchs, Lucia Leehr, and Marianella Masis Calvo for their excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Graduate School (GRK-2174), grants NE465/19-1and NE465/27-1 (to I.D.N.); within the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1134 and 1158, grants DFG-ANR GR 3619/7-1 and DFG-SNF GR 3619/8-1; the Chica and Heinz Schaller Research Foundation and Human Frontiers Science Program RGP0019/2015 (to F.A., M.E., and V.G.); the Bayerische Forschungsstiftung grant DOK-157-13 (to R.M. and I.D.N.); the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; OptiMD to I.D.N.); and the Integrated Research on Neuropsychiatric Disorders grant in the Strategic Research Program for Brain Sciences by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (to K.N. and Y.H.). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2018",
month = apr,
day = "2",
doi = "10.1016/j.cub.2018.02.044",
language = "English",
volume = "28",
pages = "1066--1078.e6",
journal = "Current Biology",
issn = "0960-9822",
publisher = "Cell Press",
number = "7",
}