Short-term and Long-term Effect of Oxytocin on the Morphology and Functional Activity of Female Rat Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue

The aim of the present work was to study the short-term and long– term effect of Oxitocin on the morphology and functional activity of the adipose tissue of adult female rats. Short-term Oxitocin effect was studied on 5 rats, each treated with a single injection of 0.008 IE Oxytocin s.c.; long-term effect – on 5 rats, treated for 10 days with 0.008 IE Oxytocin per day s.c.; 5 rats (injected with acquaous solution of Natrium chloratum 0.9% s.c. in the same way) were used as controls. After the last application fragments of subcutaneous tissue from the femoral region of each animal were resected and frozen at –18° C. On consequent fresh cryostat sections staining with hematoxylin-eosin and SudanIII–hematoxylin (for lipids demonstration by Daddi, 1896), as well as enzymehistochemical reactions for NADH2-cytochromC-reductase, Glucoso-6 phosphase-dehydrogenase, lactat dehydrogenase and lipoprotein lipase were carried out. The results demonstrated that short-term treatment with Oxytocin did not effect the morphology and functional activity of the rat subcutaneous tissue. The adipose tissue of the long-treated animals demonstrated some changes in comparison with the controls: among the typical unilocular aipocytes some multilocular fat cells (with several lipid droplets and centrally located nucleus) appeared. These multilocular adipocytes expressed positive activity for NADH2-cytochrom C-reductase, Glucoso6 phosphase-dehydrogenase, lactat dehydrogenase and lipoprotein lipase. The data suggest that Oxytocin induces an effect on rat adipose tissue and it depends on the prolongation of the treatment.