title: Correlation of plasma and salivary oxytocin in healthy young men - experimental evidence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The neuroactive hormone oxytocin (OT) has significant influence on human behavior, and it has been measured peripherally in venous blood and in saliva in many behavioral neuroscience studies. Assessment of salivary hormone levels is popular due to non-invasiveness, but there is a controversy as to whether OT can be reliably measured in saliva and how possible time lags between plasma and salivary OT levels influence correlation.
  
  
  METHODS
  In order to shed light on the question whether salivary and plasma OT levels correlate, we designed an experiment where healthy young men had to look at a presentation of trustworthy faces on a computer screen (faces were taken from an established database in trust research). During three points in time, plasma and saliva samples were collected and analyzed using ELISA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Plasma and salivary OT levels did not correlate even when considering a time lag of 15 or 30 minutes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that plasma and salivary OT levels do not correlate in healthy young men, and hence comparison of results across plasma and salivary studies is neither informative nor warranted. However, we recommend replicating this study based on mixed-gender samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Linz General Hospital, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Andrija
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Javor
authors.affiliation: University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Steyr, Austria.
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Riedl
authors.affiliation: University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Steyr, Austria.
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kindermann
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine and Endocrinology, Linz General Hospital, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Brandstätter
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Linz General Hospital, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ransmayr
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine and Endocrinology, Linz General Hospital, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gabriel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002624:Chemistry, Clinical / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism*; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010121:Oxytocin