Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Prog Neurobiol. 2018 Dec;171:1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2018.10.003. Epub 2018 Oct 22.
Beyond its well-known role in reproduction, the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has been implicated in a broad spectrum of social and nonsocial behaviors. The biological actions of OXT are exerted through specific OXT receptors (OXTR) that belong to the family of G protein-coupled receptors. OXTR is abundantly expressed in the hippocampus, and the past decade has witnessed tremendous progress in our understanding of the physiological significance of hippocampal OXTR signaling. In this review, we mainly focus on recent progress made in identifying the role of hippocampal OXTR signaling in regulating neuronal excitability, network oscillatory activity, synaptic plasticity and social recognition memory. We also discuss recent insights into the cellular mechanisms underlying these processes regulated by OXTR signaling. Finally, we discuss the remaining questions for future research. A full understanding of the functional role of hippocampal OXTR signaling may lead to targeted new therapies for social cognition deficits, often observed in patients with autism and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
除了在生殖方面的众所周知的作用外，下丘脑神经肽催产素（OXT）还与广泛的社会和非社会行为有关。OXT 的生物学作用是通过属于 G 蛋白偶联受体家族的特定 OXT 受体（OXTR）发挥的。OXTR 在海马体中大量表达，在过去的十年中，我们对海马体 OXTR 信号在调节神经元兴奋性、网络振荡活动、突触可塑性和社交识别记忆中的生理意义的理解取得了巨大进展。在这篇综述中，我们主要集中于最近在确定海马体 OXTR 信号在调节神经元兴奋性、网络振荡活动、突触可塑性和社交识别记忆中的作用方面取得的进展。我们还讨论了 OXTR 信号调节这些过程的细胞机制的最新见解。最后，我们讨论了未来研究的遗留问题。对海马体 OXTR 信号的功能作用的充分理解可能会导致针对社交认知缺陷的靶向新疗法，社交认知缺陷通常在自闭症和其他神经精神障碍患者中观察到。
