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Paternal deprivation alters play-fighting, serum corticosterone and the expression of hypothalamic vasopressin and oxytocin in juvenile male mandarin voles

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Abstract

Although early paternal deprivation significantly affects offspring behavioral and neuroendocrine development, the link between paternal deprivation and social play behavior remains unclear. Mandarin voles (Microtus mandarinus) are socially monogamous and display bi-paternal care. The present study examined the development of social play in juvenile male mandarin voles and the paternal influence on play-fighting, vasopressin- and oxytocin-immunoreactive neurons and serum corticosterone and testosterone levels. The results show that social play was more pronounced during postnatal days 28–35, differing from the ontogenetic pattern of other forms of social behavior. On postnatal day 35, the peak in play-fighting activity, paternal deprivation reduced boxing/wrestling levels and vasopressin-immunoreactive neurons in the anterior hypothalamus and oxytocin-immunoreactive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus, but increased vasopressin-immunoreactive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus and corticosterone levels. These results suggest that mandarin voles engage in social play according to an inverted U-shaped curve in ontogeny, and paternal deprivation influences the development of offspring play-fighting; hypothalamic vasopressin, oxytocin and serum corticosterone may play a modulatory role in the alteration of play-fighting elicited by paternal deprivation; decreased play-fighting may correlate with depressed vasopressin levels in the anterior hypothalamus.

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Abbreviations

AVP:

Arginine vasopressin

AH:

Anterior hypothalamus

OT:

Oxytocin

PBS:

Phosphate buffer solution

PND:

Postnatal day

PVN:

Paraventricular nucleus

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions on this manuscript. This research was supported by the Science Foundation of Beifang University of Nationalities (2012Y052) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 31260513). The experiments reported here were in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of China and were approved by the institutional animal care and use committee of Shaanxi Normal University.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Ecology Model and Applications of State Ethnic Affairs Commission, College of Biology Sciences and Engineering, Beifang University of Nationalities, Yinchuan, 750021, Ningxia, China

    Jianli Wang & Xingfu Yan

  2. College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xian, 710062, Shaanxi, China

    Fadao Tai & Peng Yu

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  1. Jianli Wang
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Wang, J., Tai, F., Yan, X. et al. Paternal deprivation alters play-fighting, serum corticosterone and the expression of hypothalamic vasopressin and oxytocin in juvenile male mandarin voles. J Comp Physiol A 198, 787–796 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-012-0748-8

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