Maternal behaviour in Mus musculus sp.: An ethological review

Weber, Elin M.; Olsson, I. Anna S.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2008.06.006

Cited by 114 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 104 publications

(243 reference statements)

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“…Nesting behavior was reduced in lactating ephrin-A5 -/- females at 6 and 24 hours after providing the nesting material. Since mice are born without the ability to regulate their body temperature, the construction of the nest is important for their survival (Weber & Olsson, 2008). It is therefore not surprising that pups born to ephrin-A5 -/- females had a lower survival rate compared to those born to wild-type controls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decreased maternal behavior and anxiety in ephrin‐A5^−/− mice

Sheleg

et al. 2016

Genes Brain and Behavior

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During development of the nervous system, molecular signals mediating cell-cell interactions play critical roles in the guidance of axonal growth and establishment of synaptic functions. The Eph family of tyrosine kinase receptors and their ephrin ligands has been shown to mediate neuronal interactions in the development of topographic axon projection maps in several brain regions, and the loss of Eph activities result in defects in select axonal pathways. However, effects of deficiencies of the Eph signals on animal behavior have not been well documented. In this study, we showed that inactivation of a ligand of the Eph receptors, ephrin-A5, resulted in defects in maternal behavior and alterations in anxiety. Female ephrin-A5-/- mice show significant defects in nest building and pup retrieval. In addition, lower levels of anxiety were observed in both male and female null mice. These changes were not due to deficiencies in estradiol, progesterone, or corticosterone levels. Our observations suggest that ephrin-A5 plays a key role in the development and/or function of neural pathways mediating mouse maternal care and anxiety.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decreased maternal behavior and anxiety in ephrin‐A5^−/− mice

Sheleg

et al. 2016

Genes Brain and Behavior

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“…Several experimental studies have shown infanticide in female mice. However, these are experimental studies conducted to observe infanticide from a behavioural ecology perspective where females with differing sexual experience are exposed to related or unrelated pups [for overview [1,27,32]; these studies do not represent normal husbandry conditions and are not applicable when addressing the question about infanticide under the current conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pup mortality in laboratory mice – infanticide or not?

et al. 2013

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BackgroundDespite being the most commonly used mammal in biomedical research, problems with perinatal mortality in mice have received little attention and the causes of pup death are still poorly known. Females are often housed alone with their litters and since the lost pups are generally eaten, it is commonly assumed that the mother has killed them. However, more detailed observations than have been reported previously in the literature are required to establish if the cause of death is infanticide. Litter loss can only be prevented efficiently after underlying causes have been carefully investigated and interpreted. The aim of this study was to investigate if females actively kill their pups by observing the behaviour of females and pups in litters that later were lost. We used video recordings of females that lost their entire litter to observe females in detail from parturition until the pups died. In total, 10 C57BL/6 females (wildtype and the knockouts Hfe−/− and β2m−/−) were studied, housed in Makrolon II cages with or without access to a small amount of nesting material.ResultsThree of the females had pups that were never seen moving, and another three females had one or two pups that never moved, indicating that some pups were most likely still-born. In five females with live-born pups, detailed observations from the time when a pup was last seen moving until it died were possible to carry out. We observed females eating dead offspring and interacting with both moving and dead pups. However, we never observed a pup stop moving when manipulated by the female, nor were any wounds seen in the pups. Hence, we found no evidence of infanticide when studying females that had lost their entire litter.ConclusionThese results suggest that other causes than infanticide plays a major role in mouse pup death, and stress the need for more systematic and careful investigations of the causality of litter loss.

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“…Though unexpected, the fact that our subjects were females (by necessity) might explain these results. Adult mice are much more likely to build nests when in company of other littermates, and females, in particular, show a high degree of nest building only during maternal phase (during pregnancy and a few days after delivery) [40]. In a study with mouse models for autism, El-Kordi et al found that only male mutants had a higher proportion of untouched nesting material and built significantly less functional nests.…”

Section: Deficits In Social and Repetitive Behaviors And Their Relevmentioning

confidence: 98%