AIM The effects of oxytocin on colonic perception of intraluminal distension were evaluated in 26 patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), using a flaccid bag placed in the descending colon and connected to a computerised barostat. METHOD Symptomatic responses (first sensation and pain) were evaluated during isobaric distensions (4 mm Hg increments, five minute duration, five minute inte...

A simple and sensitive method for the analysis of oxytocin was developed using automated on-line in-tube solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Oxytocin was separated within 3 min on a Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C8 column, with water/methanol (10/90, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 mL min−1. Electrospray ionization condi...

Introduction: Oxytocin is a active neuropeptide of central nervous system. In this study the effects of naloxone (opioid receptor antagonist) and yohimbine (α-2 adrenergic receptor antagonist) on analgesic effect of oxytocin applied into the locus coeruleus (LC) nucleus were investigated. Methods: Adult male Wistar rats were used. Animals divided into different groups receiving saline, oxy...

BACKGROUND During pregnancy asthma may remain stable, improve or worsen. The factors underlying the deleterious effect of pregnancy on asthma remain unknown. Oxytocin is a neurohypophyseal protein that regulates a number of central and peripheral responses such as uterine contractions and milk ejection. Additional evidence suggests that oxytocin regulates inflammatory processes in other tissues...

BACKGROUND Oxytocin is a stress-attenuating and pro-social neuropeptide. To date, no study has looked at the effects of oxytocin in modulating brain activity in depressed individuals nor attempted to correlate this activity with attribution of mental activity in others. METHOD We enrolled 10 unmedicated depressed adults and 10 matched healthy controls in a crossover, double blind placebo cont...

Arginine-vasopressin and oxytocin in various portions of rat brain were determined by radioimmunoassays. The hormones were extracted from tissue samples into 0.1 N HCl and then purified partially with acetone-petroleum ether extraction. The non-equilibration method was used for the assays. In this method recovery rates of arginine-vasopressin and oxytocin were 73.0 +/- 4.4% and 75.0 +/- 3.8%, r...

PURPOSE Central diabetes insipidus is characterised by arginine vasopressin deficiency. Oxytocin is structurally related to vasopressin and is synthesised in the same hypothalamic nuclei, thus we hypothesised that patients with acquired central diabetes insipidus and anterior hypopituitarism would display an oxytocin deficiency. Moreover, psychological research has demonstrated that oxytocin in...

Magnocellular neurons of the supraoptic nucleus release the neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin from their dendrites to regulate their synaptic inputs. This study aims to determine the cellular mechanism by which vasopressin modulates excitatory synaptic transmission. Presumably by electroporation through perforated patch, we were able to successfully introduce biocytin into cells in which w...