Austin Werner

Felids exhibit a divergence of social structures. African lions are highly social, while leopards are completely solitary. It’s uncommon to find systems so closely related with such divergent social organization, making felids a good model for neurological comparisons. Sociality is mediated by the neuropeptide oxytocin. It is hypothesized that increasing sociality will directly correlate to the amount of oxytocin receptors across various regions of the brain specific to social behavior (the hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis). Oxytocin receptors and proteins will be stained and counted and expression will be correlated with degree of sociality. Before this can be done in endangered species, a proper antibody has to be determined. This has been done using domestic cats as a sample tissue. We determined that mouse anti-oxytocin was a viable option and I have experimented with different titrations ending with 1:10 000. Brains were sliced at 50um using a freezing microtome. Free-floating slices were stained with primary antibodies for the oxytocin receptor. Light microscopy was used to quantify the density of labeling within the prefrontal cortex. Using domestic cat brains has enabled us to discover proper protocols so we can now apply these techniques to endangered felid species’ tissue.