Stack Edward C, Balakrishnan Revathi, Numan Marilyn J, Numan Michael
Department of Biology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
Behav Brain Res. 2002 Apr 1;131(1-2):17-36. doi: 10.1016/s0166-4328(01)00370-9.
The medial preoptic area (MPOA) is essential for normal maternal behavior in the rat. Hormone stimulation of the MPOA facilitates the behavior and lesions of the MPOA and the adjoining ventral part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (vBST) disrupt the behavior. The MPOA/vBST also show increases in Fos protein expression during maternal behavior. The present study examines the larger neural circuitry within which the MPOA/vBST might operate to influence maternal behavior. Combining Fos immunocytochemistry with unilateral excitotoxic amino acid lesions or lateral knife cuts of the MPOA/vBST, we sought to identify brain regions which might be under the influence of Fos expressing neurons in the MPOA/vBST. Two brain regions, the shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAs), and the intermediate part of the lateral septum (LSi) were identified. Both the NAs and LSi exhibited elevated Fos expression during maternal behavior, while unilateral MPOA/vBST damage resulted in an ipsilateral reduction of maternal behavior-induced Fos expression in each area, suggesting that MPOA/vBST neurons modulate Fos expression and associated neural activity in both of these structures during maternal behavior. Importantly, these unilateral preoptic lesions also depressed maternal behavior-induced Fos expression in the ipsilateral MPOA and vBST. The effects of these lesions on Fos expression in the periaqueductal gray (PAG) and other brain regions are also presented.
内侧视前区（MPOA）对大鼠的正常母性行为至关重要。对MPOA的激素刺激可促进该行为，而MPOA及终纹床核相邻腹侧部分（vBST）的损伤则会破坏该行为。在母性行为期间，MPOA/vBST中的Fos蛋白表达也会增加。本研究考察了MPOA/vBST可能在其中发挥作用以影响母性行为的更大神经回路。通过将Fos免疫细胞化学与MPOA/vBST的单侧兴奋性毒性氨基酸损伤或侧方刀切相结合，我们试图确定可能受MPOA/vBST中表达Fos的神经元影响的脑区。确定了两个脑区，即伏隔核壳（NAs）和外侧隔核中间部（LSi）。在母性行为期间，NAs和LSi的Fos表达均升高，而单侧MPOA/vBST损伤导致每个区域母性行为诱导的Fos表达在同侧减少，这表明在母性行为期间，MPOA/vBST神经元调节这两个结构中的Fos表达及相关神经活动。重要的是，这些单侧视前区损伤还会降低同侧MPOA和vBST中母性行为诱导的Fos表达。还呈现了这些损伤对导水管周围灰质（PAG）和其他脑区Fos表达的影响。
