Role of GnRH neurons in Reproductive Behavior and Physiology

Project Information

GNRH & REPRODUCTION

Grant agreement ID: 303785

Project closed

Start date 1 April 2012

End date 31 March 2016

Funded under

• Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Total cost € 100 000,00

EU contribution € 100 000,00

Coordinated by

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Israel

Objective

In this research, I propose to investigate the neuronal circuitry underlying reproductive behaviors. The specific phenomenon studied here, reflexive release of luteinizing hormone (RRLH), occurs in males of various species including mice and humans. RRLH is the release of luteinizing hormone into the blood stream in response to sensory detection of female stimuli. The chemosensory inputs that mediate RRLH in mice are detected by the vomeronasal organ, and relayed via the accessory olfactory bulb, and the vomeronasal amygdala, to the hypothalamic gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons. This small neuronal population is the final brain stage controlling RRLH as well as many other aspects of reproductive function in both males and females of many species. Until recently, it was not possible to investigate the role of GnRH neurons in this and other vomeronasal system mediated phenomena. This was due to the technical difficulties of targeting specific GnRH neurons and stimulating the vomeronasal system in-vivo. Here I propose to apply a novel experimental system that I recently developed for in-vivo stimulus delivery to the vomeronasal system, and combine it with in-vivo electrophysiology and optogenetics, to test the function of GnRH neurons and of the preceding vomeronasal brain stages in RRLH. The current research promises to provide the first direct physiological recording of mammalian GnRH neurons in vivo, to reveal how they are modulated by sensory stimuli and to identify their direct effects on reproductive physiology. From a different perspective, GnRH neurons are used as a focal point for studying the information processing related to an ethologically relevant reproductive phenomenon in multiple brain regions.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• medical and health sciences › basic medicine › physiology
• natural sciences › computer and information sciences › data science › data processing

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Programme(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG - Marie-Curie Action: "Career Integration Grants"

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MC-CIG - Support for training and career development of researcher (CIG)

Coordinator

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

• EU contribution: € 100 000,00
• Address: EDMOND J SAFRA CAMPUS GIVAT RAM ; 91904 Jerusalem ; Israel
• Activity type: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Total cost: No data