| Title: | Pregnancy and estrogen enhance neural progenitor-cell proliferation in the vomeronasal sensory epithelium |
| Author(s): | Oboti L; Ibarra-Soria X; Perez-Gomez A; Schmid A; Pyrski M; Paschek N; Kircher S; Logan DW; Leinders-Zufall T; Zufall F; Chamero P; |
| Address: | "Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. livio.oboti@gmail.com. Present address: Center for Neuroscience Research, Children's National Health System, 20010, Washington, DC, USA. livio.oboti@gmail.com. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK. xs1@sanger.ac.uk. Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. anabelpgo@gmail.com. Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. andreas.schmid@uks.eu. Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. martina.pyrski@uks.eu. Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. n.paschek@gmx.de. Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. sarah.kircher@uks.de. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK. dl5@sanger.ac.uk. Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, USA. dl5@sanger.ac.uk. Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. trese.leinders@uks.de. Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. frank.zufall@uks.eu. Department of Physiology, and Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421, Homburg, Germany. pablo.chamero@uks.eu. Present address: Laboratoire de Physiologie de la Reproduction & des Comportments, UMR 7247 INRA-CNRS-Universite Francois Rabelais, F-37380, Nouzilly, France. pablo.chamero@uks.eu" |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12915-015-0211-8 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1741-7007 (Electronic) 1741-7007 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "BACKGROUND: The hormonal state during the estrus cycle or pregnancy produces alterations on female olfactory perception that are accompanied by specific maternal behaviors, but it is unclear how sex hormones act on the olfactory system to enable these sensory changes. RESULTS: Herein, we show that the production of neuronal progenitors is stimulated in the vomeronasal organ (VNO) epithelium of female mice during a late phase of pregnancy. Using a wide range of molecular markers that cover the whole VNO cell maturation process in combination with Ca(2+) imaging in early postmitotic neurons, we show that newly generated VNO cells adopt morphological and functional properties of mature sensory neurons. A fraction of these newly generated cells project their axons to the olfactory forebrain, extend dendrites that contact the VNO lumen, and can detect peptides and urinary proteins shown to contain pheromone activity. High-throughput RNA-sequencing reveals concomitant differences in gene expression in the VNO transcriptomes of pregnant females. These include relative increases in expression of 20 vomeronasal receptors, of which 17 belong to the V1R subfamily, and may therefore be considered as candidate receptors for mediating maternal behaviors. We identify the expression of several hormone receptors in the VNO of which estrogen receptor alpha (Esr1) is directly localized to neural progenitors. Administration of sustained high levels of estrogen, but not progesterone, is sufficient to stimulate vomeronasal progenitor cell proliferation in the VNO epithelium. CONCLUSIONS: Peripheral olfactory neurogenesis driven by estrogen may contribute to modulate sensory perception and adaptive VNO-dependent behaviors during pregnancy and early motherhood" |
| Keywords: | Animals Cell Proliferation Estrogen Receptor alpha/*metabolism Estrogens/*metabolism Female Mice Neural Stem Cells/physiology *Neurogenesis Pregnancy Vomeronasal Organ/growth & development/*physiology; |
| Notes: | "MedlineOboti, Livio Ibarra-Soria, Ximena Perez-Gomez, Anabel Schmid, Andreas Pyrski, Martina Paschek, Nicole Kircher, Sarah Logan, Darren W Leinders-Zufall, Trese Zufall, Frank Chamero, Pablo eng WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom 098051/WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2015/12/02 BMC Biol. 2015 Nov 30; 13:104. doi: 10.1186/s12915-015-0211-8" |
