Figures & data
Figure 1. PLCβ1-KO dams neglected pups after postpartum hour 18 (PPH 18). (A) KO dam at PPH 6 (left) hovering over and nursing the pups, and at PPH 26 (right) neglecting pups that are left scattered all over the floor. (B) Total maternal behavior of WT (black circle) and KO (white circle) dams measured every six hours during the 48-h peripartum period. (C) Pup-directed maternal behavior of WT (black circle) and KO (white circle) dams measured every six hours during the 24-h postpartum period. (D) Representative photographs of nest construction. Top: by WT virgin females, WT dams during the period between 24 h prepartum and PPH 12 (−24 h ∼ PPH 12) or after PPH 18; Bottom center: by KO dams during −24 h ∼ PPH 12. All values are Mean ± SEM. ***p < 0.0001.
Figure 2. PLCβ1-KO dams could not finish pup retrieval task after PPH 18. (A) Pup retrieval test (PRT) method. (B) Pup retrieval by wild-type (WT, circle), heterozygous (HT, square) and KO (triangle) dams after PPH 18. (C) Pup retrieval by WT (plain) and KO (hatched) dams during the period within PPH 12 (PPH12, dark) and after PPH 18 (PPH18, light). All values are Mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05; ns indicates ‘not significant’.
Figure 3. Differential activation of brain areas in wild-type (WT) and PLCβ1-KO dams within PPH 12 and after PPH 18. (A, B) Number of FosB-positive cells (per section) in the mPFC, NAcc, and mPOA of WT (black) and KO (gray) dams within PPH 12 and after PPH 18. (C) Representative images of FosB immunohistochemistry for the twelve groups from (A) and (B). Calibration bar is 100 µm. All values are Mean ± SEM. *p < 0.01; ***p < 0.0001.
