Neonatal paternal deprivation or early deprivation reduces adult parental behavior and central estrogen receptor α expression in mandarin voles (Microtus mandarinus)

Paternal Care in Biparental Rodents: Intra- and Inter-individual Variation

“…Thus, effects of father absence on behavioral development in pups do not appear to be mediated by changes in maternal behavior. As in prairie voles, mandarin vole (Jia et al 2011;Yu et al 2015) and Mongolian gerbil (Gromov 2009, cited by Braun and Champagne 2014) fathers raised by only their mothers perform less paternal behavior toward their own offspring than do fathers that were raised by both parents.…”

Early Paternal Deprivation Alters Levels of Hippocampal Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Glucocorticoid Receptor and Serum Corticosterone and Adrenocorticotropin in a Sex-Specific Way in Socially Monogamous Mandarin Voles

“…In some social rodents, fathers play an important role in offspring development, and paternal care, like maternal care, remarkably alters social behaviors and emotional functions such as physical growth [4,5,6,7], juvenile play/fighting [8], aggressive behavior [9], social recognition [10] and cognitive development [11], anxiety levels and sociability [12,13], pair bonding [14] and parental behavior in adulthood [12,13]. Paternal deprivation (PD) produces significant changes in the related neural substrate and it is thought that alterations in behavior are associated with depressed arginine vasopressin levels in the anterior hypothalamus [8], less oxytocin receptor mRNA expression in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) [10], altered mRNA expression of dopamine-1-type receptor (D1R) and D2R in the NAcc [14], increased OT content and greater dorsal raphe corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF)-2 densities [15] and reduction of estrogen receptor-α expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), medial preoptic area, ventromedial nucleus of hypothalamus and arcuate hypothalamic nucleus [13].…”

“…Paternal deprivation (PD) produces significant changes in the related neural substrate and it is thought that alterations in behavior are associated with depressed arginine vasopressin levels in the anterior hypothalamus [8], less oxytocin receptor mRNA expression in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) [10], altered mRNA expression of dopamine-1-type receptor (D1R) and D2R in the NAcc [14], increased OT content and greater dorsal raphe corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF)-2 densities [15] and reduction of estrogen receptor-α expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), medial preoptic area, ventromedial nucleus of hypothalamus and arcuate hypothalamic nucleus [13]. …”

“…Mandarin voles (Microtus mandarinus) are socially monogamous rodents widely distributed across China [30,31] in which adult males provide high levels of paternal care to their offspring in addition to long-term living with the adult females [12,13]. Previous studies indicate that PD decreases total parental investment, and mothers cannot compensate for reduced parental care resulting from the absence of fathers [12,13].…”

Socio-Ecological Disruptions at Critical Periods During Development Alter Stress Responses and Hippocampal Dendritic Morphology of Prairie Voles: Implications for Social Monogamy

“…Exposure of mandarin voles to paternal loss as neonates also lowered their sociality, particularly in females. As adults, the subjects were less parental, less likely to investigate novel conspecifics, and the females were less likely to show partner preference (Jia et al, 2011;Yu et al, 2012;Cao et al, 2014). In California mice, removal of the father 3 days postpartum had no effect on the anxiety of the adult offspring tested in an empty open-field arena, but the subjects showed reduced social interactions and increased aggression (Bambico et al, 2015).…”