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). 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.雌性泌乳哺乳动物在产后会经历诸多生理与行为适应性变化，以照料新生幼崽并满足泌乳过程中升高的能量需求。为揭示此类产后适应性改变的神经关联机制，本研究探究了摄食剥夺与泌乳状态对两个下丘脑区域——弓状核（arcuate nucleus, ARC）与内侧视前区（medial preoptic area, MPOA）基因表达的调控作用。 为此，我们针对四组年龄匹配的雌性小鼠的ARC与MPOA组织，开展了10x Genomics 单细胞RNA测序（single-cell RNA sequencing, scRNA-seq）。实验所用小鼠为14周龄的C57BL/6品系雌性小鼠，共分为四组：饱腹处女鼠（sated virgins, VS）、禁食处女鼠（fasted virgins, VF）、饱腹母鼠（sated mothers, MS）以及禁食母鼠（fasted mothers, MF），每组合并3只小鼠的样本（n=3）。 泌乳组的每窝幼崽数量为8只，样本采集时幼崽日龄为13至15天；禁食组小鼠则接受整夜禁食处理，禁食时长为16至18小时。