Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan.
Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan.
Nat Commun. 2017 Sep 14;8(1):537. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00675-5.
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.Oxytocin (OXT) has been implicated in adult neurogenesis. Here the authors show that CA3 pyramidal cells in the adult mouse hippocampus express OXT receptors and receive inputs from hypothalamic OXT neurons; activation of OXT signaling in CA3 pyramidal cells promotes the survival and maturation of newborn neurons in the dentate gyrus in a non-cell autonomous manner.
除了调节社会和情绪行为外，下丘脑神经肽催产素已被证明可刺激成年齿状回的神经发生；然而，催产素作用的机制仍不清楚。利用条件性敲除小鼠模型，我们在这里表明，内源性催产素信号通过 CA3 锥体神经元表达的催产素受体以非细胞自主的方式在成年小鼠海马体中调节新产生的齿状回颗粒细胞的存活和成熟。通过双向化学遗传操作，我们还揭示了 CA3 锥体神经元活性在调节齿状回中的成年神经发生中的重要作用。逆行神经元示踪结合免疫细胞化学显示，室旁核中的催产素神经元直接投射到海马体的 CA3 区域。我们的研究结果揭示了催产素信号在成年神经发生中的关键作用。催产素（OXT）已被认为与成年神经发生有关。在这里，作者表明成年小鼠海马体中的 CA3 锥体细胞表达 OXT 受体，并接收来自下丘脑 OXT 神经元的输入；CA3 锥体细胞中 OXT 信号的激活以非细胞自主的方式促进齿状回中新神经元的存活和成熟。
