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ASTROCYTES MEDIATE A POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOP FOR OXYTOCIN
Maria Clara Sellesand 6 co-authors
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
FENS Forum 2026 (2026)
Barcelona, Spain
Board PS04-08PM-209
Presentation
Date TBA
Board: PS04-08PM-209
Event Information
Poster Board
PS04-08PM-209
Poster
View posterAbstract
The world is undergoing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. While there is a growing amount of evidence showing the relevance of oxytocin for social behaviours, less is known about how social interactions - or the lack of them - affect oxytocin neurons and consequently, behaviour. We found that long-term social deprivation decreases oxytocin production and delays affiliation upon reunion in mice. This behavioural phenotype was rescued by stimulation of the endogenous oxytocin system with chemogenetics and by administration of exogenous oxytocin. Moreover, both approaches induced an upregulation of endogenous oxytocin expression, a phenomenon that we named the local oxytocin positive feedback loop. Conditional knock-out studies revealed that astrocytes are key mediators of this loop. We found that oxytocin induces calcium transients in astrocytes and upregulates the expression of Aldh1a1 - an enzyme involved in the production of retinoic acid. We confirmed that both retinoic acid and overexpression of astrocyte Aldh1a1 upregulate oxytocin expression in vivo. We therefore propose that oxytocin receptor activation in hypothalamic astrocytes upregulates oxytocin expression in neighbouring neurons. In summary, we found a local positive feedback loop for oxytocin in which astrocytes can sense and modulate the oxytocin system to control social interactions.
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