The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of oxytocin in vivo, its ability to regulate the immune and anti-inflammatory responses of microglia in the brain and ameliorate autism-like abnormal behaviors (Malishkevich et al., 2015; Maejima et al., 2022), prompted us to investigate whether the reduced expression in the hippocampus is associated with aberrant microglial function. The gene discussed is OXT; the disease is autism.