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SUMMARY:Porcine maternal infanticide: a model for puerperal psychosis in h
 umans - Professor Nabeel A Affara\, Dept. of Patholog\, University of Camb
 ridge
DTSTART:20080123T163000Z
DTEND:20080123T173000Z
UID:TALK8051@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Laurence Tiley
DESCRIPTION:Childbirth is a period of substantial rapid biological and psy
 chological change and a wide range of psychotic disorders can occur rangin
 g from mild ‘baby blues’ to severe episodes of psychotic illnesses. Pu
 erperal psychosis is the most extreme form of postnatal psychosis\, occurr
 ing in 1 in 1000 births. In this study\, we have used the pig as an animal
  model for human postnatal psychiatric illness and\, in particular\, puerp
 eral psychosis. Our aim was to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) and 
 altered patterns of hypothalamic gene expression associated with maternal 
 (infanticide) sow aggression. This is defined as sows attacking and killin
 g their own newborn offspring within 24 hours of birth. An affected sib pa
 ir whole genome linkage analysis was carried out and resulted in mapping 4
  QTL on Sus scrofa chromosomes 2 (SSC2)\, 10 (SSC10) and X (SSCX). The pea
 k regions of these QTL are syntenic to HSA 5q14.3-15\, 1q32\, Xpter-Xp2.1 
 and Xq2.4-Xqter respectively. Several potential candidate genes lie in the
 se regions in addition to relevant abnormal behavioural QTL\, found in hum
 ans and rodents. In parallel\, expression analysis using brain-based targe
 ted cDNA microarrays of hypothalamic tissue from aggressive and matched no
 n-aggressive sows was used to identify which genes were over and under-exp
 ressed in the abhorrent behavioural phenotype compared to the matched cont
 rol. This expression analysis suggested which genetic pathways in the hypo
 thalamus are potentially associated with the maternal infanticide behaviou
 r and some of these genes and the pathways in which they are involved were
  also implicated in the parallel QTL study. This data will provide candida
 te genes that can be investigated in the analogous human condition for evi
 dence of variation and also single nucleotide polymorphism haplotypes that
  can be used to predict and manage aggressive sows over the critical postn
 atal period. 
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 1\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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