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. 2017 Jun 13;7:3396. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-03645-5

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© The Author(s) 2017

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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A model showing how the IGF-I - IGFBP-3 system regulates maternal responsiveness and prolactin release. (a) In virgin females and pup-deprived mothers, IGF-I of hypothalamic origin or from the circulation probably induce the expression of MCH in the preoptic area and enhances the expression of the TH enzyme, furthermore stimulates its activation by phosphorylation in TIDA neurons. Consequently, these cells produce more MCH or dopamine, which inhibits maternal responsiveness or prolactin secretion from the pituitary. (b) In lactating mothers, MCH and TIDA neurons enhance the expression of IGFBP-3, which can neutralize IGF-I. The MCH or TIDA stimulating effect induced by IGF-I diminishes, which results in a decrease in MCH or dopamine production and concomitant increased maternal responsiveness or prolactin secretion due to its release from tonic inhibition. Abbreviations: ac – anterior commissure, Arc – arcuate nucleus, f – fornix, MPA – medial preoptic area, och – optic chiasm, 3 V – third ventricle.