TY - JOUR
T1 - Progesterone receptors mediate male aggression toward infants
AU - Schneider, Johanna S.
AU - Stone, Marielle K.
AU - Wynne-Edwards, Katherine E.
AU - Horton, Teresa H.
AU - Lydon, John
AU - O'Malley, Bert
AU - Levine, Jon E.
PY - 2003/3/4
Y1 - 2003/3/4
N2 - Neuroendocrine mechanisms that mediate male aggression toward infants are poorly understood. Although testosterone is known to enhance aggression in other social contexts, evidence that it modulates aggression toward infants is equivocal. We have found that male progesterone receptor knockout (PRKO) mice exhibit no infanticidal behavior and little aggression toward young. Male PRKO mice also display significantly enhanced parental behaviors. In wild-type mice, blockade of PR induces a behavioral phenotype similar to that of the PRKO males, whereas progesterone exacerbates aggressive tendencies toward infants. Aggressive behaviors directed toward adult males, by contrast, are unaffected by progesterone, PR antagonism, or PR gene deletion. Previously thought to be of diminished importance in male animals, PRs play a critical and specific role in modulating infantdirected behaviors in male mice.
AB - Neuroendocrine mechanisms that mediate male aggression toward infants are poorly understood. Although testosterone is known to enhance aggression in other social contexts, evidence that it modulates aggression toward infants is equivocal. We have found that male progesterone receptor knockout (PRKO) mice exhibit no infanticidal behavior and little aggression toward young. Male PRKO mice also display significantly enhanced parental behaviors. In wild-type mice, blockade of PR induces a behavioral phenotype similar to that of the PRKO males, whereas progesterone exacerbates aggressive tendencies toward infants. Aggressive behaviors directed toward adult males, by contrast, are unaffected by progesterone, PR antagonism, or PR gene deletion. Previously thought to be of diminished importance in male animals, PRs play a critical and specific role in modulating infantdirected behaviors in male mice.
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.0130100100
DO - 10.1073/pnas.0130100100
M3 - Article
C2 - 12601162
AN - SCOPUS:0037418305
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 100
SP - 2951
EP - 2956
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 5
ER -