A Hypothalamic Circuit that Modulates Feeding and Parenting Behaviors

Female lactating mammals undergo many physiological and behavioral changes postpartum to care for newborn offspring and meet the increased caloric demands of milk production. To uncover the neural correlates of these postpartum adaptations, we investigated how gene expression in two hypothalamic regions -- the arcuate nucleus (ARC) and the medial preoptic area (MPOA) -- is regulated by food deprivation and lactation. To this end, we employed 10x Genomics scRNA-seq in the ARC and MPOA of 4 groups of age-matched female mice: sated virgins (VS), fasted virgins (VF), sated mothers (MS), and fasted mothers (MF). Overall design: 4 groups (sated virgins, fasted virgins, sated lactating mothers, fasted lactating mothers) of 14-week-old female C57BL/6 mice (n = 3 mice pooled per group) were used for scRNA-seq. The litter size for the lactating groups was 8 pups and pups were 13-15 days old at the time of sample collection. The fasted groups were food-deprived overnight for 16-18 hours.