Genetic analyses of the roles of neuropeptides expressed in the center of mouse maternal behaviors.

催产素和加压素被认为是调节哺乳动物社会行为(如母体行为)的神经肽。为了深入了解它们的功能，我们创造了这些基因的四重敲除小鼠，这些小鼠表现出正常的母性行为。这项研究的结果表明，这些神经肽在不同物种和不同行为背景下对母性行为有不同的影响，它们在C57BL/6小鼠母性行为中的作用相当有限。

Oxytocin and vasopressin are considered the neuropeptides which have important roles in regulating mammalian social behaviors, such as maternal behavior. To obtain insight about their function, we created quadruple knockout mice of these genes, and these mice expressed normal maternal behavior. The result of this study suggested that these neuropeptides have different effects on maternal behavior among species and among behavioral contexts, and that they have rather a limited role in the C57BL/6 mouse maternal behavior.