Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications
Publication Date
8-8-2024
Journal
Cell
DOI
10.1016/j.cell.2024.06.001
PMID
38959890
PMCID
PMC11961024
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
4-1-2025
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Author MSS
Published Open-Access
yes
Keywords
Animals, Female, Mice, Obesity, Male, Humans, TRPC Cation Channels, Depression, Postpartum, Neurons, Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Oxytocin, Maternal Behavior
Abstract
Hypothalamic neural circuits regulate instinctive behaviors such as food seeking, the fight/flight response, socialization, and maternal care. Here, we identified microdeletions on chromosome Xq23 disrupting the brain-expressed transient receptor potential (TRP) channel 5 (TRPC5). This family of channels detects sensory stimuli and converts them into electrical signals interpretable by the brain. Male TRPC5 deletion carriers exhibited food seeking, obesity, anxiety, and autism, which were recapitulated in knockin male mice harboring a human loss-of-function TRPC5 mutation. Women carrying TRPC5 deletions had severe postpartum depression. As mothers, female knockin mice exhibited anhedonia and depression-like behavior with impaired care of offspring. Deletion of Trpc5 from oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus caused obesity in both sexes and postpartum depressive behavior in females, while Trpc5 overexpression in oxytocin neurons in knock-in mice reversed these phenotypes. We demonstrate that TRPC5 plays a pivotal role in mediating innate human behaviors fundamental to survival, including food seeking and maternal care.
Graphical Abstract
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