Study of novel physiological function by the system with oxytocin and its receptor.

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Central oxytocin and its receptor Oxtr have a regulatory function to control social behaviors in mammals, including human. Also, application of oxytocin to Autism patients have been started and reports describing positive cure effects have been accumulated. In this study, we analyzed the mechanism controlling social behaviors by neurons expressing Oxtr in brain First, by crossing fx-type Oxtr KO mice with ePet-Cre mice, we generated mice having 5-HT neurons-specific deletion of Oxtr genes. This line didn't show any impairment in their social memory. In contrast, rescue experiment was carried out by injection of AAV-Cre viral vector to mice brains to induce MeA-specific deletion of Oxtr gene, and it revealed that Oxtr expressing in MeA were essential for social memory. In addition, we found that the glutamatergic neurons expressing Oxtr in rRPa regulated body temperature. We forwarded study of type I taste cells expressing Oxtr, and obtained novel characteristics of these populations.