RESUMO
How environmental and physiological signals interact to influence neural circuits underlying developmentally programmed social interactions such as male territorial aggression is poorly understood. We have tested the influence of sensory cues, social context, and sex hormones on progesterone receptor (PR)-expressing neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) that are critical for male territorial aggression. We find that these neurons can drive aggressive displays in solitary males independent of pheromonal input, gonadal hormones, opponents, or social context. By contrast, these neurons cannot elicit aggression in socially housed males that intrude in another male's territory unless their pheromone-sensing is disabled. This modulation of aggression cannot be accounted for by linear integration of environmental and physiological signals. Together, our studies suggest that fundamentally non-linear computations enable social context to exert a dominant influence on developmentally hard-wired hypothalamus-mediated male territorial aggression.
Assuntos
Agressão/fisiologia , Hipotálamo/citologia , Hipotálamo/fisiologia , Neurônios/fisiologia , Comportamento Social , Potenciais de Ação/efeitos dos fármacos , Potenciais de Ação/genética , Adenoviridae/genética , Animais , Antipsicóticos/farmacologia , Clozapina/análogos & derivados , Clozapina/farmacologia , Canais de Cátion Regulados por Nucleotídeos Cíclicos/genética , Canais de Cátion Regulados por Nucleotídeos Cíclicos/metabolismo , Feminino , Técnicas In Vitro , Proteínas Luminescentes/genética , Proteínas Luminescentes/metabolismo , Masculino , Camundongos Endogâmicos C57BL , Camundongos Transgênicos , Neurônios/efeitos dos fármacos , Técnicas de Patch-Clamp , Receptores de Progesterona/genética , Receptores de Progesterona/metabolismo , Fatores Sexuais , Canais de Cátion TRPC/genética , Canais de Cátion TRPC/metabolismoRESUMO
Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) is a central transcriptional regulator of hypoxic response. The present study was designed to investigate the role of HIF-1α in mild hypoxia-induced cardiomyocytes hypertrophy and its underlying mechanism. Mild hypoxia (MH, 10% O(2)) caused hypertrophy in cultured neonatal rat cardiac myocytes, which was accompanied with increase of HIF-1α mRNA and accumulation of HIF-1α protein in nuclei. Transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channels including TRPC3 and TRPC6, except for TRPC1, were increased, and Ca(2+)-calcineurin signals were also enhanced in a time-dependent manner under MH condition. MH-induced cardiomyocytes hypertrophy, TRPC up-regulation and enhanced Ca(2+)-calcineurin signals were inhibited by an HIF-1α specific blocker, SC205346 (30 µM), whereas promoted by HIF-1α overexpression. Electrophysiological voltage-clamp demonstrated that DAG analogue, OAG (30 µM), induced TRPC current by as much as 170% in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes overexpressing HIF-1α compared to negative control. These results implicate that HIF-1α plays a key role in development of cardiac hypertrophy in responses to hypoxic stress. Its mechanism is associated with up-regulating TRPC3, TRPC6 expression, activating TRPC current and subsequently leading to enhanced Ca(2+)-calcineurin signals.