Meeting Abstract
Chronic stressors, such as chronic isolation in social mammals, can elevate glucocorticoids, which may affect cellular aging mechanisms such as increasing levels of oxidative stress and shortening telomere lengths. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) are a useful model species to study chronic isolation due to their social and pair bonding behaviors. Recent work in prairie voles suggests that oxytocin and social support may mitigate some of the negative consequences of social isolation, possibly by reducing glucocorticoid levels. We investigated the influences of isolation, oxytocin or social support on stress physiology, behavior, and cellular aging. Voles were divided into six groups: isolated (I), paired (P), isolated (IV) and paired (PV) with daily vehicle injections, and isolated (IO) and paired (PO) with daily oxytocin injections. Blood samples were collected at the start of the study, then again after 3 and 6 weeks. Acute stress tests were conducted using the resident-intruder paradigm at 6 weeks to determine if treatment had any effect on stress responsiveness. Anhedonia, a behavioral index of depression, was measured using sucrose solution preference tests to determine depression-like symptoms throughout the study. We found that daily oxytocin injections in isolated individuals prevented anhedonia as compared to those who were isolated with and without daily vehicle injections. The effect of social isolation and oxytocin treatment on GC levels, oxidative stress, and telomere length will also be discussed. Overall our findings suggest that oxytocin appears to mitigate some of the negative consequences of social isolation.
