Alloparental Care and Postnatal Development of Heterozygous TPH2 Transgenic Mice

The issue of the relationship between the transmission of a negative effect from a depressed mother to her offspring is one of the priorities in modern psychiatry. Mice with the knocked-out tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) gene have a depressive-compulsive phenotype, which makes these animals a highly appropriate bio-model for studying the role of serotonin in the body. In the offspring of such animals the following reproductive parameters were studied: pups maturation (physiological development) and sensory and motor reflexes. It was found that in the heterozygous mice, maternal care was reduced by the TPH2 gene knockout and cannibalism directed at offspring was increased. Deviations and violations in the return of pups to the nest were revealed in maternal behavior. Some deficiency in the development of heterozygous offspring was observed after 10 days. The homozygous (KO) pups had a lower body mass than the heterozygous (Het) and wild-type (Wt) pups. The rate of detachment of the auricle, eruption of the upper incisors, opening of the eyes, and lowering of the testes in the KO pups were observed at the same time as in the Wt and Het pups.