Salubrious effects of oxytocin on social stress-induced deficits

Abstract

Social relationships are a fundamental aspect of life, affecting social, psychological, physiological, and behavioral functions. While social interactions can attenuate stress and promote health, disruption, confrontations, isolation, or neglect in the social environment can each be major stressors. Social stress can impair the basal function and stress-induced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, impairing function of multiple biological systems and posing a risk to mental and physical health. In contrast, social support can ameliorate stress-induced physiological and immunological deficits, reducing the risk of subsequent psychological distress and improving an individual's overall well-being. For better clinical treatment of these physiological and mental pathologies, it is necessary to understand the regulatory mechanisms of stress-induced pathologies as well as determine the underlying biological mechanisms that regulate social buffering of the stress system. A number of ethologically relevant animal models of social stress and species that form strong adult social bonds have been utilized to study the etiology, treatment, and prevention of stress-related disorders. While undoubtedly a number of biological pathways contribute to the social buffering of the stress response, the convergence of evidence denotes the regulatory effects of oxytocin in facilitating social bond-promoting behaviors and their effect on the stress response. Thus, oxytocin may be perceived as a common regulatory element of the social environment, stress response, and stress-induced risks on mental and physical health.

Oxytocin facilitates fidelity in well-established marmoset pairs by reducing sociosexual behavior toward opposite-sex strangers

“…The OT system may be interacting with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to modify sex-specific behavior responses. Novel environments and distinct social contexts generate anxiety-like behavior and concurrent activation of the HPA axis in marmosets (Smith and French, 1997), and since OT is a well-known anxiolytic agent (Smith and Wang, 2012), an alternative interpretation of the differential behavioral responses during the partner-preference test is that treatment with Pro 8 -OT may be acting on the HPA axis to modify anxiety-like responses, as opposed to selectively acting on social neural circuits. Although, the results of the current study do not fall in line with the hypothesis that OT is anxiolytic.…”

Environmental stress, oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphism, and mental health following collective stress

“…The neuropeptide oxytocin, a central component of this system, helps shape social behaviors and plays a critical role in our responses to the social environment around us; in stressful situations, oxytocin can also decrease behavioral and physiologic responses to stress see Meyer-Lindenberg et al, 2011 for a review). A rapidly growing body of evidence suggests that individual differences in OXT function may be key to understanding how social environments influence mental and physical health when coping with stress (e.g., Smith and Wang, 2012).…”

“…In so doing, the OXT functions to mobilize social supports and minimize the risk for developing depressive or anxious behaviors (Smith and Wang, 2012). As part of this system, the OXTR SNP rs53576 genotype appears to have stress-buffering effects with the GG genotype showing greatest sensitivity to the physiologic effects of oxytocin (e.g., Bakermans-Kranenburg and van IJzendoorn, 2008;Rodrigues et al, 2009;Tost et al, 2010).…”

Maternal Behavior and Physiological Stress Levels in Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)

“…Both observational and experimental evidence indicates that the neuropeptide oxytocin suppresses HPA axis function (Hennessy et al . 2009; Smith and Wang 2012) and that oxytocin concentrations are related to affiliative behaviors such as nursing and soothing touch. Lending support to this argument, the occurrence of social grooming between both kin and nonkin social bond partners was associated with increased urinary oxytocin levels in wild chimpanzees (Crockford et al .…”