Selective vulnerability of parvocellular oxytocin neurons in social dysfunction

Masafumi Tsurutani, Teppei Goto, Mitsue Hagihara, Satsuki Irie and Kazunari Miyamichi ()
Additional contact information
Masafumi Tsurutani: Kobe
Teppei Goto: Kobe
Mitsue Hagihara: Kobe
Satsuki Irie: Kobe
Kazunari Miyamichi: Kobe

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Selective vulnerability offers a conceptual framework for understanding neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, where specific neuronal types are selectively affected and adjacent ones are spared. However, the applicability of this framework to neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly those characterized by atypical social behaviors, such as autism spectrum disorder, remains uncertain. Here we show that an embryonic disturbance, known to induce social dysfunction in male mice, preferentially impaired the gene expression crucial for neural functions in parvocellular oxytocin (OT) neurons—a subtype linked to social rewards—while neighboring cell types experienced a lesser impact. Chemogenetic stimulation of OT neurons at the neonatal stage ameliorated social deficits in early adulthood, concurrent with cell-type-specific sustained recovery of pivotal gene expression within parvocellular OT neurons. Collectively, our data shed light on the transcriptomic selective vulnerability within the hypothalamic social behavioral center and provide a potential therapeutic target through specific neonatal neurostimulation.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53092-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-53092-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53092-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().