Co-interaction between central oxytocin and corticotropin releasing hormone systems
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1
German Cancer Research Center DKFZ and University of Heidelberg, Neuropeptides, Germany
The hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) controls parturition and lactation in mammals and centrally orchestrates various types of social behaviors. In addition, OT exerts pronounced anxiolytic effects, which lead attenuation of stress and fear responses in mammalian species, including human. We recently gained genetic access to hypothalamic OT neurons in live rats by viral vectors to dissect the connectivity of OT neurons with various intra- and extrahypothalamic regions and exemplarily showed that optogenetic stimulation of local OT axons in the central nucleus of amygdala (CeA) – key brain regions controlling fear response – attenuates freezing behavior in fear-conditioned rats (Knobloch et al., 2012). Presently we are exploring an interaction of OT with the corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)- producing neurons, employing both viral-mediated cell-type specific targeting of CRH neurons and transgenic animal models, expressing genes of interest under the control of CRH promoter. As one of important finding obtained by now, we observed close oppositions of OT dendrites with CRH cell bodies in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), which represents central limb of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The dissecting of mechanisms of co-interaction between two functionally opposing brain systems, such as OT and CRH systems, opens possibility to probe the dual neuropeptide control of stress response. Furthermore, advanced genetic approaches now allow studying the effects of neuropeptide release either from axons or dendrites in experimental models of anxiety, stress and fear.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) grants GR 3619/2-1, 3619/3-1, GR 3619/4-1 and Chica and Heinz Schaller Research Foundation
References
Knobloch, S., Charlet, A., Hoffmann, L.C., Eliava, M., Khrulev, S., Cetin, A.H., Osten, P., Schwarz, M. K., Seeburg, P.H., Stoop, R., Grinevich, V. (2012). Evoked axonal oxytocin release in the central amygdala attenuates fear response. Neuron 73, 553-566.
Keywords:
Oxytocin,
CRH,
HPA axis,
stress,
viral vectors
Conference:
4th Conference of the Mediterrarnean Neuroscience Society, Istanbul, Türkiye, 30 Sep - 3 Oct, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Symposium
Topic:
Abstracts
Citation:
Grinevich
V
(2013). Co-interaction between central oxytocin and corticotropin releasing hormone systems
.
Conference Abstract:
4th Conference of the Mediterrarnean Neuroscience Society.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.210.00035
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Received:
27 Jan 2013;
Published Online:
11 Apr 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Valery Grinevich, German Cancer Research Center DKFZ and University of Heidelberg, Neuropeptides, Heidelberg, Germany, valery.grinevich@zi-mannheim.de