OBJECTIVE Animal research suggests that oxytocin (OT) plays a role in stress responses and that in females, this role is modulated by estrogen. Yet little is known about the relation of OT to human stress responses. This study was conducted to examine the relations between estrogen activity and OT, identify stressors distinctively associated with elevations in OT, and investigate whether OT is ...

Yibchok-Anun, Sirintorn, Henrique Cheng, Patricia A. Heine, and Walter H. Hsu. Characterization of receptors mediating AVPand OT-induced glucagon release from the rat pancreas. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Endocrinol. Metab. 40): E56–E62, 1999.—We characterized the receptors that mediate arginine vasopressin (AVP)and oxytocin (OT)-induced glucagon release by use of a number of antagonists in the perfus...

During the female reproductive cycle, hypothalamic oxytocin (OT) neurons undergo sharp changes in excitability. In lactating mammals, bursts of electrical activity of OT neurons result in the release of large amounts of OT in the bloodstream, which causes milk ejection. One hypothesis is that OT neurons regulate their own firing activity and that of nearby OT neurons by somatodendritic release ...

Exogenous application of the neuromodulatory hormone oxytocin (OT) promotes prosocial behavior and can improve social function. It is unclear, however, whether OT promotes prosocial behavior per se, or whether it facilitates social interaction by reducing a state of vigilance toward potential social threats. To disambiguate these two possibilities, we exogenously delivered OT to male rhesus mac...

OT (oxytocin) is secreted from the posterior pituitary gland, and its secretion has been shown to be modulated by NO (nitric oxide). In rats, OT secretion is also stimulated by hyperosmolarity of the extracellular fluid. Furthermore, NOS (nitric oxide synthase) is located in hypothalamic areas involved in fluid balance control. In the present study, we evaluated the role of the NOS/NO and HO (h...

OBJECTIVE Recently, it has been suggested that oxytocin (OT) has a role in metabolism and neuropsychiatry health and disease, and therefore, it may represent a potential therapeutic target. The current study aimed to investigate relationships between OT and glycemic status along with psycho-social and behavioral factors. DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 92 obese or overweight, African American, ...

Noradrenaline and serotonin are known to control arginine-vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT) secretion in the systemic circulation. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether these monoamines are also able to influence AVP and OT expression in the paraventricular (PVN) and supraoptic nuclei (SON). To test this hypothesis, we used the Tg8 transgenic mice KO for the monoamine oxidas...

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a rare inherited genetic disorder causing severe intellectual disability and autistic-like symptoms. Individuals with FXS, males in particular, often exhibit extreme eye gaze avoidance and hyperarousal when they encounter stressful social situations. We investigated whether oxytocin (OT), a hormone with prosocial and anxiolytic effects, could alleviate symptoms of so...

In view of the cardioprotective effect of oxytocin (OT) released in response to stress, the aim of this study was to evaluate the role of heat shock proteins Hsps 70, 27 and 20 in stress-induced cardioprotection in isolated, perfused rat hearts. Rats were divided in two main groups: unstressed and stressed rats, and all of them were subjected to i.c.v. infusion of vehicle or drugs: unstressed r...

The role of the neurohypophyseal peptide oxytocin (OT) and its receptor (OTR) in the breast has been described mainly in relation to breast feeding or to neoplastic growth regulation. We demonstrate here the presence of OT synthesis within the breast under both physiological and neoplastic conditions. In order to clarify whether normal epithelial and myoepithelial cells could synthesize OT, the...