Psychoneuroendocrinology 27 (2002) 651–660 www.elsevier.com/locate/psyneuen Differing concentrations of corticotropin- releasing factor and oxytocin in the cerebrospinal fluid of bonnet and pigtail macaques Leonard A. Rosenblum a,* , E.L.P. Smith a , Margaret Altemus e , Bruce A. Scharf b , Michael J. Owens d , Charles B. Nemeroff d , Jack M. Gorman c , Jeremy D. Coplan a a Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn, State University of New York, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203-2098, USA b Division of Laboratory Animal Resources, SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn, State University of New York, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203-2098, USA c Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA d Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA e Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA Received 15 July 2000; received in revised form 28 June 2001; accepted 29 June 2001 Abstract The two neuropeptides corticotropin-releasing-factor (CRF) and oxytocin (OT) may produce opposing behavioral effects — elevations of the former have been associated with anxiety and social vigilance and reductions of the latter with reduced social affiliation. We sought to test the hypothesis that, within the primate macaque genus, the more gregarious, affiliative, and affectively stable bonnet species (Macaca radiata) would exhibit lower cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) CRF and higher CSF OT concentrations in comparison to its close relative, the tempera- mentally volatile and socially distant pigtail (Macaca nemestrina). Cisternal CSF samples were obtained from young adult male and female pigtail and bonnet macaques, and CRF and OT concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. Pigtail macaques exhibited significantly higher concentrations of CSF CRF and significant lower concentrations of CSF OT than bonnet * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-718-270-1166; fax: +1-718-270-3355. E-mail address: lrosenbl@downstate.edu (L.A. Rosenblum). 0306-4530/02/$ - see front matter  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0306-4530(01)00056-7