Séminaire de Lucile Ben Haïm

Friday September 29, 2023, at 14:30, Henri Gastaut meeting room

Lucile Ben Haïm (Laboratoire des maladies Neurodégénératives,
CNRS/CEA/Université Paris-Saclay)

invited by Rémi Bos

Role of astrocyte JAK-STAT signaling in the regulation of mouse socio-sexual behavior

Abstract: Social behaviors including mating, parenting and social interactions are crucial for the survival and health of many species. Accumulating evidence indicates that the immune system acts as a neuromodulator to regulate mouse behavior, including social interactions, through cytokine signaling. In the central nervous system, astrocytes are important mediators of cytokine signaling notably through activation of the JAK-STAT pathway. Moreover, astrocytes influence various physiological behaviors in a brain-region specific manner through a finely tuned regulation of synaptic transmission. Therefore, we hypothesize that local astrocytes might play a key role in cytokine-mediated regulation of mouse social behavior. Our results show that social interaction activates the JAK-STAT pathway in astrocytes of the mouse ventral hippocampus (vHPC). Furthermore, we found that activating this cascade specifically in vHPC astrocytes selectively promotes mouse socio-sexual behavior. Our current experiments aim at deciphering the functional changes elicited by astrocyte JAK-STAT pathway at the local- and circuit-levels.