title: Paternal Retrieval Behavior Regulated by Brain Estrogen Synthetase (Aromatase) in Mouse Sires that Engage in Communicative Interactions with Pairmates.
abstract: Parental behaviors involve complex social recognition and memory processes and interactive behavior with children that can greatly facilitate healthy human family life. Fathers play a substantial role in child care in a small but significant number of mammals, including humans. However, the brain mechanism that controls male parental behavior is much less understood than that controlling female parental behavior. Fathers of non-monogamous laboratory ICR mice are an interesting model for examining the factors that influence paternal responsiveness because sires can exhibit maternal-like parental care (retrieval of pups) when separated from their pups along with their pairmates because of olfactory and auditory signals from the dams. Here we tested whether paternal behavior is related to femininity by the aromatization of testosterone. For this purpose, we measured the immunoreactivity of aromatase [cytochrome P450 family 19 (CYP19)], which synthesizes estrogen from androgen, in nine brain regions of the sire. We observed higher levels of aromatase expression in these areas of the sire brain when they engaged in communicative interactions with dams in separate cages. Interestingly, the number of nuclei with aromatase immunoreactivity in sires left together with maternal mates in the home cage after pup-removing was significantly larger than that in sires housed with a whole family. The capacity of sires to retrieve pups was increased following a period of 5 days spent with the pups as a whole family after parturition, whereas the acquisition of this ability was suppressed in sires treated daily with an aromatase inhibitor. The results demonstrate that the dam significantly stimulates aromatase in the male brain and that the presence of the pups has an inhibitory effect on this increase. These results also suggest that brain aromatization regulates the initiation, development, and maintenance of paternal behavior in the ICR male mice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Shirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akther
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Zhiqi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Mingkun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Azam A K M
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Fakhrul
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Teruko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yuhi
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan ; Department of Biochemistry, Medical Pharmaceutical and Toxicological Chemistry, Krasnoyarsk State Medical University Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lopatina
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Medical Pharmaceutical and Toxicological Chemistry, Krasnoyarsk State Medical University Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
authors.forename: Alla B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Salmina
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Chiharu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Higashida
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Mie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuo
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Research on Social Recognition, Kanazawa University Research Center for Child Mental Development Kanazawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Haruhiro
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Higashida
keywords: brain aromatase; communicative interaction; immunoreactivity; mouse; parental behavior; paternal care