[Imaging Analyses of Oxytocin: Visualization of Oxytocin and Its Implications]

Oxytocin, long known for its peripheral action, is a strong regulator of social behaviors through its actions in the brain. Despite such recognition, its sites of actions and dynamics within the brain tissues remain poorly understood owing to the lack of appropriate tools for its visualization and characterization. Conventional fluorescence-tagging is not applicable for small-sized bioactive molecules like oxytocin. Herein, our attempt to overcome this limitation is introduced using our novel strategy, alkyne-tagging. Small-sized alkynes would facilitate specific tagging and subsequent visualization of oxytocin within the body, which would bring forth new insights into the modes of oxytocin's action in the brain.