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. 2021 Jun:140:170544.
doi: 10.1016/j.peptides.2021.170544. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

LC-MS/MS measurement of endogenous oxytocin in the posterior pituitary and CSF of macaques: A pilot study

D W Erikson  1 , S W Blue  1 , A V Kaucher  1 , T A Shnitko  2
Affiliations

LC-MS/MS measurement of endogenous oxytocin in the posterior pituitary and CSF of macaques: A pilot study

D W Erikson et al. Peptides. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Oxytocin (OT) is a nanopeptide released into systemic circulation via the posterior pituitary (peripheral) and into the central nervous system via widespread OTergic pathways (central). Central OT plays a significant role in variety of functions from social and executive cognition to immune regulation. Many ongoing studies explore its therapeutic potential for variety of neuropsychiatric disorders. Measures of peripheral OT levels are most frequently used as an indicator of its concentration in the central nervous system in humans and animal models. In this study, LC-MS/MS was used to measure OT in pituitary samples collected from adult male macaque monkeys in order to explore the correlation between individual levels of OT in the CSF (central) and pituitary (peripheral). We quantified individual differences in the levels of OT in the pituitaries (44-151 ng/mg) and CSF (41-66 pg/mL) of these monkeys. A positive correlation between these two measures was identified. These preliminary results allow for future analyses to determine whether LC-MS/MS measures of peripheral OT can be used as markers of OT levels in the brain of nonhuman primates that serve as valuable models for many human neuropsychiatric disorders.

Keywords: LC–MS/MS; Macaque monkey; Oxytocin; Pituitary.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

Authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Representative chromatograms of OT analyzed by LC-MS/MS.
A. Analysis of OT (720 pg/ml) and internal standard OT-d10 (1 ng/ml) demonstrating relative retention times and MRM transitions used for quantification. B. OT at the lower limit of quantification (10 pg/ml). C. Extracted serum blank injection showing no significant interference peaks at the retention time for OT. CPS, counts per second; min, minutes; d, deuterium.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Representative MRM chromatograms of OT.
A. Analysis of OT (48 pg/ml) in CSF. B. Analysis of OT (0.05 μg/mg) in pituitary. CPS, counts per second; min, minutes
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Levels of endogenous OT in the CSF and pituitary of cynomolgus macaques measured with LC-MS/MS.
The average and individual OT levels measured in the CSF (A) and pituitary (B). The horizontal lines show average [OT] (n=7) and circles depict individual OT measures. C. Individual levels of OT measured in the pituitary (peripheral) positively correlated with the CSF levels of OT (Spearmen correlation, r=0.78, p<0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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