Relationship between BDNF and oxytocin

Donatella Marazziti; Stefano Baroni; Federico Mucci; Lionella Palego; Alessandro Arone; Laura Betti; Stefania Palermo; Gino Giannaccini; Manuel Glauco Carbone; Liliana Dell'Osso

doi:10.1016/j.cpnec.2023.100207

Relationship between BDNF and oxytocin

Compr Psychoneuroendocrinol. 2023 Sep 4:16:100207. doi: 10.1016/j.cpnec.2023.100207. eCollection 2023 Nov.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Section of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Italy.
² Saint Camillus International University of Health and Medical Sciences - UniCamillus, Rome, Italy.
³ Dipartimento di Farmacia, University of Pisa, Italy.
⁴ Dipartimento di Medicina e Chirurgia, Division of Psychiatry, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.

Abstract

Converging, albeit scattered data mainly gathered in animals indicate that the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and the nonapeptide oxytocin (OT) interact in a cooperative way. Data in humans are really limited and indirect. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the possible existence of a link between OT and BDNF in humans, by means of two peripheral markers, the platelet-poor-plasmatic-BDNF (PPP-BDNF) and the platelet BDNF (PLT-BDNF) and OT levels. Twenty-six young healthy controls of both sexes who volunteered for the study were included in the study. Fifty ml of peripheral venous blood were drawn from one-night fasting subjects between 8.00 and 9.00 a.m. The BDNF and OT assays were carried out according to common methods. Comparisons for continuous variables were performed by the Student's t-test for variables that follow a normal distribution, and by the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test for variables not normally distributed. The correlations between biological markers were explored by calculating the Pearson's correlation coefficient or Spearman's rank correlation. The results showed that PLT-BDNF (pg/mg proteins, mean ± SD) and PPP-BDNF (pg/ml, mean ± SD) were 1546 ± 1844 and 10111 ± 1892, respectively. The OT levels (pg/ml, mean ± SD) were 13.92 ± 4.54. The OT levels were significantly higher in women than in men. The Spearman's analysis revealed a statistically significant and negative correlation between OT levels and PLT-BDNF (R = -0.543, p = 0.004). The findings of this study highlight the presence of a significant and negative correlation between OT and PLT-BDNF in a small group of healthy controls of both sexes. In any case, despite all the limits of peripheral biomarkers, they suggest that this reciprocal influence might have a downstream homeostatic function dampening one activity when the other is activated or no longer necessary, maybe at the level of the stress and/or immune systems.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Humans plasma; Interactions; Oxytocin; Platelets.