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Query: UNIPROT:P01178 (oxytocin)
 15,767 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The research reviewed in the present paper indicates that vasopressin and oxytocin cells in the human HNS constitute an extremely stable population of neurons throughout the human life span. Increases in the activity of these cells, which are probably related to maturation of the system were observed during fetal development and probably extend well beyond term. During senescence an increase in the activity of the vasopressin cells in the human HNS was observed which is probably a compensation for age-related changes in kidney function. These data do not support a role of declining vasopressin secretion in age-related memory decline. Although there is some evidence for an impairment of vasopressin synthesis and release in Alzheimer patients, vasopressin cell numbers in Alzheimer's disease do not fall below values observed in young controls. Furthermore, peripheral administration of vasopressin or vasopressin analogues to AD patients have not yielded consistent results.
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PMID:The human hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system in relation to development, aging and Alzheimer's disease. 148 Jul 51

The concentrations of human neurophysins in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of nine patients with Alzheimer's disease: Preliminary observations. (AD), and one patients with Pick's disease, were determined using specific radioimmunoassays (RIAs). Concentrations of vasopressin and oxytocin were also measured. Values were compared with those from 20 age-matched mentally normal individuals who were being treated for back pain. CSF levels of vasopressin-associated human neurophysin (VP-HNP) and oxytocin-associated human neurophysin (OT-HNP) in patients with AD (22 +/- 4 fmol/ml and 104 +/- 17 fmol/ml) were only 42% and 58% of those in the control subjects (p less than 0.0001, p less than 0.0004). Vasopressin levels for these patients (3.6 +/- 0.4 fmol/ml) were also significantly reduced to 51% of controls (p less than 0.007) and oxytocin levels were marginally (p = 0.092) reduced to 70% of controls. Because neurophysins and neuropeptides are gene-related products of vasopressin-neurons and oxytocin-neurons, the data indicate that these neurons are functionally impaired in patients with AD. Plasma neurophysin values suggest this impairment is confined to neurons with centrally-directed axons. Data from the one patient with Pick's disease demonstrates that reduced CSF levels of neurophysins and hormones is not confined to Alzheimer-type dementia.
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PMID:An evaluation of human neurophysin production in Alzheimer's disease: preliminary observations. 152 43

Sites which bind oxytocin and vasopressin with high affinity were detected in the brain and upper spinal cord of 12 human subjects, using in vitro light microscopic autoradiography. Tissue sections were incubated with tritiated vasopressin, tritiated oxytocin or an iodinated oxytocin antagonist. The ligand specificity of binding was assessed with unlabelled vasopressin or oxytocin in excess, as well as in competition experiments using synthetic structural analogues. The distribution of vasopressin binding sites differed markedly from that of oxytocin binding sites in the forebrain, while there was overlap in the brainstem. Vasopressin binding sites were detected in the dorsal part of the lateral septal nucleus, in midline nuclei and adjacent intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus, in the hilus of the dentate gyrus, the dorsolateral part of the basal amygdaloid nucleus and the brainstem. The distribution of oxytocin binding sites in the brainstem has been recently reported (Loup et al., 1989). Oxytocin binding sites were also observed in the basal nucleus of Meynert, the nucleus of the vertical limb of the diagonal band of Broca, the ventral part of the lateral septal nucleus, the preoptic/anterior hypothalamic area, the posterior hypothalamic area, and variably in the globus pallidus and ventral pallidum. The presence of oxytocin and vasopressin binding sites in limbic and autonomic areas suggests a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator role for these peptides in the human central nervous system. They may also affect cholinergic transmission in the basal forebrain and consequently play a role in Alzheimer's disease.
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PMID:Localization of high-affinity binding sites for oxytocin and vasopressin in the human brain. An autoradiographic study. 165

Total cell numbers in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) were previously shown to remain unaltered with aging and in AD. The aim of the present study was to determine the aging pattern of the oxytocin (OXT) cell population in the PVN. For this purpose, the number of immunocytochemically identified oxytocin cells was determined in the PVN of the human hypothalamus in 20 control subjects ranging in age from 15 to 90 years and in 10 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients aged 46 to 97 years. The results show that the number of OXT cells in the PVN is similar in males and females and remains unaltered in senescence and AD. It is concluded that the remarkable stability of the PVN in these conditions also applies for the subpopulation of OXT cells in this nucleus and that reports in the literature on diminished OXT secretion in AD do not seem to be based on a decrease in the number of OXT expressing neurons from the PVN.
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PMID:Oxytocin cell number in the human paraventricular nucleus remains constant with aging and in Alzheimer's disease. 177 Sep 86

This review summarizes the revolutionary impact of brain peptides on our understanding of the nervous system and then discusses the localization, distribution, synthesis, receptor sites, and possible function of 32 brain peptides. The peptides are discussed in three subgroups: I) the opioid peptides, which include beta-endorphin, the enkephalins, and dynorphin; II) the pituitary releasing hormones, most of which are wide-spread in the brain and include corticotropin-releasing hormone, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone, somatostatin, and thyrotropin-releasing hormone; and III) a selection of 12 other peptides potentially important for neurological function, including vasopressin, oxytocin, substance P, cholecystokinin, bombesin, neurotensin, renin, angiotensin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, neuropeptide Y, calcitonin gene-related peptide, and calcitonin. Within each individual peptide section, the possible physiological roles in anterior pituitary hormone release, blood-flow regulation, feeding behavior, temperature regulation, nociception, memory and learning, and movement are reviewed. Further, where noted, the peptide findings in Huntington's, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and psychiatric diseases are emphasized.
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PMID:Neuropeptides. 187 Jul 24

Plasma concentrations of oestrogen stimulated neurophysin (ESN) were reduced in 28 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared with 14 age-matched controls, 16 patients with other presenile dementias and 12 patients with major depressive disorder. The ESN response to oestrogen challenge was delayed in 10 AD patients compared with 7 age-matched controls. Reduced basal and oestrogen stimulated plasma ESN may be related to impaired responsiveness of the hypothalamo-neurohypophysial neurons and/or a reduction in the amount of pituitary ESN available for release. Plasma ESN measurements may be of value for excluding the diagnosis of AD in patients with dementia who present before the age of 65.
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PMID:Reduced plasma oestrogen stimulated neurophysin and delayed response to oestrogen challenge in Alzheimer's disease. 228 85

As a first step toward assessing the status of brain neuropeptide systems that may be involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of the neuropeptides arginine vasopressin, somatostatin, oxytocin, and beta-endorphin were measured in patients with AD, normal elderly subjects, and normal young subjects. The plasma arginine vasopressin level was also measured in the three groups. The CSF arginine vasopressin level was significantly lower in patients with AD than in either elderly or young normal subjects, but oxytocin and beta-endorphin levels did not differ between groups. The CSF osmolarity also did not differ between groups. The plasma arginine vasopressin level did not significantly differ between groups, but high plasma arginine vasopressin values were absent in the patients with AD. The CSF somatostatin level was significantly lower in patients with AD than in normal elderly persons, but it did not differ in young normal subjects. These results suggest that central vasopressinergic activity may be decreased in AD and confirm reports of low CSF somatostatin levels in AD.
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PMID:Cerebrospinal fluid vasopressin, oxytocin, somatostatin, and beta-endorphin in Alzheimer's disease. 286 44

Vasopressin (VP) is involved as a neurotransmitter in a number of central functions that are frequently disturbed during aging and dementia. Therefore, this peptide has been used in clinical trials as a 'substitution therapy' for the degenerating peptidergic neurons, aimed at improving cognitive functions in aged and demented individuals with unequivocal results. In order to investigate whether the VP systems indeed show the claimed degenerative changes during aging and dementia, we focused in the first place on the Supra Optic Nucleus (SON) and Para Ventricular Nucleus (PVN). VP cells were identified by means of immunocytochemistry in a series of 32 formalin-fixed human hypothalami, including 4 patients with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT). In the SON and PVN, VP cell and nucleolar size was determined by means of a digitizer device, as parameter for peptide synthesizing activity. VP cell size and nucleolar size increased beyond 80 years of age, both in the PVN and in the SON. In SDAT patients these measures fell within the range for their age group. Instead of degenerative changes, these results show an activation of the vasopressinergic system in senescence and in SDAT patients, similar to earlier observations in the aged rat and in accordance with a rise in human neurophysin and VP levels reported recently. The cause for these changes might be in the kidney. Immunocytochemical staining of VP binding sites in the renal tubuli was strongly diminished in kidneys of old (25 and 34 months) as compared to young (3 and 5 months) Wistar and Brown-Norway rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Increased vasopressin production in senescence and dementia]. 294 1

The discovery of neuropeptides in mammalian nervous tissue has proceeded at an astonishing pace in recent years, encouraged by novel detection techniques which allow peptides to be extracted and sequenced before their biological activity has been determined (Mutt 1983; Sudcliffe et al. 1983). Most of these methods, poached from molecular biology, are nowadays reversing former trends which evolved either as a systematic search for factors known to control pituitary hormone release (vasopressin and oxytocin), for instance, or as an endeavour to find endogenous ligands for newly discovered receptors (the endorphins) (see Krieger 1983 for review). Neuropeptide tyrosine (NPY) has emerged as an important member of this new generation of peptides, not least because it is the most abundant and widely distributed in the mammalian brain. However, despite the considerable attention this peptide has attracted, we are far from understanding its functional significance. The following account traces the history of NPY and appraises some of the literature in an attempt to raise some speculation concerning its function; several reviews on this peptide already exist (Emson and de Quidt 1984; Solomon 1985; Allen and Bloom 1986; Gray and Morley 1986), Particular attention is paid to studies which have recently suggested that NPY might be involved with the pathogenesis of two neurodegenerative disorders, Huntington's chorea and Alzheimer's disease.
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PMID:The neuropeptide Y-immunoreactive neuronal system: discovery, anatomy and involvement in neurodegenerative disease. 295 70

Vasopressin and oxytocin exert pronounced effects on behaviour by a direct action on the brain. A single injection of vasopressin results in a long-term inhibition of extinction of a conditioned avoidance response suggesting that vasopressin triggers a long-term effect on the maintenance of a learned response, probably by facilitation of memory processes. In addition vasopressin improves passive avoidance behaviour, delays extinction of appetitive discrimination tasks, affects approach behaviour to an imprinting stimulus in ducklings, improves copulation rewarded behaviour of male rats in a T-maze, prevents or reverses amnesia induced by electroconvulsive shock, CO2 inhalation, pentylenetetrazol or puromycin. The majority of these effects of vasopressin in the various and sometimes relatively complex tasks may be explained by stimulatory influences of this neuropeptide on memory processes. Generally oxytocin exerts effects which are opposite to those of vasopressin and it has been suggested that oxytocin may be an amnesic neuropeptide. Various limbic system structures seem to act as the anatomical substrate for the behavioural effects of vasopressin. In particular the amygdala, the dentate gyrus of the hippocampal complex, the ventral hippocampus and the dorsal septum seem to be involved. Evidence has been obtained from experiments with homozygous diabetes insipidus rats and from experiments in which antisera were applied that endogenous vasopressin and oxytocin play a physiological role in brain processes related to memory. It appears that highly active fragments can be generated from vasopressin and experiments in which a fragment of vasopressin ([pGlu4, Cyt6]AVP-(4-8)) as well as an AVP-antagonist were used, reveal that the vasopressin receptors mediating the behavioural effects are situated in the brain and differ in specificity from the peripheral (blood pressure) vasopressin receptors. Generally the clinical data obtained so far with vasopressin treatment are in agreement with the results from animal experiments and they support the notion on the involvement of vasopressin in memory function. The sometimes reported conflicting results on vasopressin effects in certain patients (Korsakoff or Alzheimer) may have to do with the wide-spread pathology in these diseases.
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PMID:Vasopressin and oxytocin. Their presence in the central nervous system and their functional significance in brain processes related to behaviour and memory. 346 10


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