Yue, Chunmei, Noriko Mutsuga, Elka M. Scordalakes, and Harold Gainer. Studies of oxytocin and vasopressin gene expression in the rat hypothalamus using exonand intron-specific probes. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 290: R1233–R1241, 2006. First published December 15, 2005; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00709.2005.—To develop a comprehensive approach for the study of oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin ...

The neurohypophyseal hormones oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VP) are involved in behavioral, autonomic and neuroendocrine functions. Both peptides are synthesized in magnocellular neurons of paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei at hypothalamic level whose axons terminate in the neurohypophysis (NH), from where OT and VP are released into the systemic circulation. NH contains abundant nitric ox...

Huang, Wan, Alan F. Sved, and Edward M. Stricker. Vasopressin and oxytocin release evoked by NaCl loads are selectively blunted by area postrema lesions. Am. J. Physiol. Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 278: R732–R740, 2000.—The present study investigated the effect of area postrema lesions (APX) on stimulated neurohypophysial secretion of vasopressin (VP) and oxytocin (OT) in conscious ra...

A paradigm was developed for the chronic osmotic stimulation of homozygous diabetes insipidus rats of the Brattleboro strain, a strain that fails to synthesize vasopressin. This study examines the adaptation of 2 sets of coexisting peptide hormone magnocellular neurons in the hypothalamoneurohypophyseal system (HNS) of Long Evans (LE), Brattleboro heterozygote (HZ), and Brattleboro homozygote (...

Although oxytocin (OT) and dopamine (DA) have been implicated in pair bond formation in monogamous prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), the nature of potential interactions between these two neurochemical systems and the brain circuits important for such interactions in the regulation of pair bonding have not been explored. Here, we demonstrated that access to both OT and DA D2-type receptors ...

Centrally acting oxytocin (OT) is known to terminate food consumption in response to excessive stomach distension, increase in salt loading, and presence of toxins. Hypothalamic-hindbrain OT pathways facilitate these aspects of OT-induced hypophagia. However, recent discoveries have implicated OT in modifications of feeding via reward circuits: OT has been found to differentially affect consump...

BACKGROUND The social milieu provides the context for the organism's survival, endurance, and adaptation. In mammals, social participation originates within the parent-infant bond and is supported by the oxytocin (OT) system, whose functioning is transmitted from parent to child through patterns of parental care. Human studies indicate that OT administration increases affiliative behavior, incl...

Recently, increasing attention has been paid to the welfare of farm animals, which have been evaluated using behavioral and physiological measures. However, so far, the measures have almost always been used to estimate poor welfare. In this review, firstly we focus on how oxytocin (OT) relates to positive social behavior, pleasure, and stress tolerance, and second on which management factors st...

Oxytocin (OT) is critical for lactation and maternal care, but OT and the related nonapeptide vasopressin are important for caregiving behaviors in fathers and alloparents as well. This experiment tested the effects of vasopressin and OT on food sharing in marmoset families. We treated caregivers (parents, siblings) with intranasal vasopressin, OT, or saline, and then paired them with the young...

The involvement of oxytocin (OT) in bone metabolism is an interesting area of research that recently achieved remarkable results. Moreover, several lines of evidence have largely demonstrated that OT also participates in the regulation of energy metabolism. Hence, it has recently been determined that the posterior pituitary hormone OT directly regulates bone mass: mice lacking OT or OT receptor...