Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 3, 2026
Recapitulating Suckling-to-Weaning Transition In Vitro using Fetal Intestinal Organoids
Published on: November 15, 2019
The development of suckling behavior of neonatal mice is regulated by birth
Tomohisa Toda, Hiroshi Kawasaki1
1Department of Biophysical Genetics, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Takara-machi 13-1, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-8640, Japan. hiroshi-kawasaki@umin.ac.jp.
Background:
Although the function of the sensory system rapidly develops soon after birth in newborn pups, little is known about the mechanisms triggering this functional development of the sensory system.
Results:
Here we show that the birth of pups plays an active role in the functional development of the sensory system. We first optimized the experimental procedure for suckling behavior using neonatal mouse pups. Using this procedure, we found that preterm birth selectively accelerated the development of suckling behavior in neonatal pups, but not that of motor performance, suggesting that the birth of pups regulates the functional development of the sensory system soon after birth.
Conclusions:
Taken together with our recent findings that birth itself regulates the initiation of sensory map formation in the somatosensory and visual systems, these results support the idea that the birth of pups actively regulates the anatomical and functional development of the sensory system.
