TY - JOUR TI - Oxytocin-mediated social enrichment promotes longer telomeres and novelty seeking AU - Faraji, Jamshid AU - Karimi, Mitra AU - Soltanpour, Nabiollah AU - Moharrerie, Alireza AU - Rouhzadeh, Zahra AU - lotfi, Hamid AU - Hosseini, S Abedin AU - Jafari, S Yaghoob AU - Roudaki, Shabnam AU - Moeeini, Reza AU - Metz, Gerlinde AS A2 - Mason, Peggy A2 - Dulac, Catherine VL - 7 PY - 2018 DA - 2018/11/13 SP - e40262 C1 - eLife 2018;7:e40262 DO - 10.7554/eLife.40262 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.40262 AB - 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. KW - social enrichment KW - oxytocin KW - telomere length KW - novelty seeking KW - corridor field task KW - oxytocin antagonist JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -