日前，由复旦大学数学学院特聘教授冯建峰博士领导的研究团队，通过十多年的潜心研究，揭示了哺乳过程中母亲体内一种与信任、情谊密切相关的非常重要的荷尔蒙(Oxytocin)分泌与大脑神经细胞状态之间的密切关系，从而揭示出母亲哺乳的生物机能。该成果发表《公共科学图书馆·计算生物学》（PLoS Computational Biology）上。
医学研究表明，母亲在哺乳过程中，其体内需要分泌大量的荷尔蒙才能促使乳腺分泌乳汁，以达到哺育孩子的目的。但是，长久以来，科学家一直无法解释，这样大量的荷尔蒙到底是从何而来，由何种机制来进行调控的。
复旦大学冯建峰博士领导的团队对于这一问题给予了回答。他们的研究发现，母亲在哺乳过程中，其大脑中下丘脑神经细胞展现出非常有规律的同步发放分泌大量荷尔蒙的生理现象。同时他们还发现，母亲大脑中负责细胞之间信号传递的细胞树突通过正反馈也参与到分泌荷尔蒙的行列之中。这项研究工作可用于探索“内部宇宙”——人类大脑功能中的大量类似现象。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
PLoS Computational Biology，doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000123，Enrico Rossoni，Jianfeng Feng
Emergent Synchronous Bursting of Oxytocin Neuronal Network
Enrico Rossoni1, Jianfeng Feng1,2*, Brunello Tirozzi3, David Brown4, Gareth Leng5, Françoise Moos6
1 Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom2 Centre for Computational System Biology, Fudan University, China3 Department of Physics, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy4 The Babraham Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom5 Centre for Integrative Physiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom6 Biologie des Neurones Endocrines, Montpellier,
Abstract
When young suckle, they are rewarded intermittently with a let-down of milk that results from reflex secretion of the hormone oxytocin; without oxytocin, newly born young will die unless they are fostered. Oxytocin is made by magnocellular hypothalamic neurons, and is secreted from their nerve endings in the pituitary in response to action potentials (spikes) that are generated in the cell bodies and which are propagated down their axons to the nerve endings. Normally, oxytocin cells discharge asynchronously at 1–3 spikes/s, but during suckling, every 5 min or so, each discharges a brief, intense burst of spikes that release a pulse of oxytocin into the circulation. This reflex was the first, and is perhaps the best, example of a physiological role for peptide-mediated communication within the brain: it is coordinated by the release of oxytocin from the dendrites of oxytocin cells; it can be facilitated by injection of tiny amounts of oxytocin into the hypothalamus, and it can be blocked by injection of tiny amounts of oxytocin antagonist. Here we show how synchronized bursting can arise in a neuronal network model that incorporates basic observations of the physiology of oxytocin cells. In our model, bursting is an emergent behaviour of a complex system, involving both positive and negative feedbacks, between many sparsely connected cells. The oxytocin cells are regulated by independent afferent inputs, but they interact by local release of oxytocin and endocannabinoids. Oxytocin released from the dendrites of these cells has a positive-feedback effect, while endocannabinoids have an inhibitory effect by suppressing the afferent input to the cells.
