Hemoglobin in the blood acts as a chemosensory signal via the mouse vomeronasal system

Takuya Osakada, Takayuki Abe, Takumi Itakura, Hiromi Mori, Kentaro K. Ishii, Ryo Eguchi, Ken Murata, Kosuke Saito, Sachiko Haga-Yamanaka, Hiroko Kimoto, Yoshihiro Yoshihara, Kazunari Miyamichi and Kazushige Touhara ()
Additional contact information
Takuya Osakada: The University of Tokyo
Takayuki Abe: The University of Tokyo
Takumi Itakura: The University of Tokyo
Hiromi Mori: The University of Tokyo
Kentaro K. Ishii: The University of Tokyo
Ryo Eguchi: The University of Tokyo
Ken Murata: The University of Tokyo
Kosuke Saito: The University of Tokyo
Sachiko Haga-Yamanaka: The University of Tokyo
Hiroko Kimoto: The University of Tokyo
Yoshihiro Yoshihara: The University of Tokyo
Kazunari Miyamichi: The University of Tokyo
Kazushige Touhara: The University of Tokyo

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract The vomeronasal system plays an essential role in sensing various environmental chemical cues. Here we show that mice exposed to blood and, consequently, hemoglobin results in the activation of vomeronasal sensory neurons expressing a specific vomeronasal G protein-coupled receptor, Vmn2r88, which is mediated by the interaction site, Gly17, on hemoglobin. The hemoglobin signal reaches the medial amygdala (MeA) in both male and female mice. However, it activates the dorsal part of ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHd) only in lactating female mice. As a result, in lactating mothers, hemoglobin enhances digging and rearing behavior. Manipulation of steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1)-expressing neurons in the VMHd is sufficient to induce the hemoglobin-mediated behaviors. Our results suggest that the oxygen-carrier hemoglobin plays a role as a chemosensory signal, eliciting behavioral responses in mice in a state-dependent fashion.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28118-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:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28118-w

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28118-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 ().