Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada.
Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.
Elife. 2018 Nov 13;7:e40262. doi: 10.7554/eLife.40262.
The quality of social relationships is a powerful determinant of lifetime health. Here, we explored the impact of social experiences on circulating oxytocin (OT) concentration, telomere length (TL), and novelty-seeking behaviour in male and female rats. Prolonged social housing raised circulating OT levels in both sexes while elongating TL only in females. Novelty-seeking behaviour in females was more responsive to social housing and increased OT levels than males. The OT antagonist (OT ANT) L-366,509 blocked the benefits of social housing in all conditions along with female-specific TL erosion and novelty-seeking deficit. Thus, females seem more susceptible than males to genetic and behavioural changes when the secretion of endogenous OT in response to social life is interrupted. Social enrichment may, therefore, provide a therapeutic avenue to promote stress resiliency and chances of healthy aging across generations.
社会关系的质量是决定终身健康的一个重要因素。在这里，我们探讨了社会经历对雄性和雌性大鼠循环催产素（OT）浓度、端粒长度（TL）和寻求新奇行为的影响。长期的群居生活提高了两性的循环 OT 水平，而只有雌性的 TL 延长。与雄性相比，雌性对社会隔离的反应更灵敏，OT 水平也更高。OT 拮抗剂（OT ANT）L-366,509 阻断了社会隔离的所有益处，同时也导致了雌性特异性 TL 侵蚀和寻求新奇行为缺陷。因此，当内源性 OT 分泌对社会生活的反应受到干扰时，雌性比雄性更容易受到遗传和行为变化的影响。因此，社会充实可能为促进压力弹性和跨代健康老龄化提供了一种治疗途径。
