Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01178 (oxytocin)
 15,767 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Ovarian steroids and oxytocin (OT) have been implicated in the regulation of social behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to examine hormonal substrates of aggression and affiliation in the female Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), a highly social, monogamous rodent. Sexually naive adult females were paired with sexually experienced males for 48 h and their interactions videotaped. Females were gonadally intact and tested during vaginal estrus (INT) or ovariectomized and observed after the following treatments, administered by means of sc injections: EBEB (7 days of estradiol-benzoate); EBP (2 days of EB followed by progesterone), SALEB (saline, days 1-5 then 2 days of EB), OTEB (OT for days 1-5 then 2 days of EB); OTOIL (OT for days 1-5 then 2 days of OIL); or SALOIL (saline days 1-5 then 2 days of OIL). During the first hour of pairing INT females displayed higher levels of affiliation and lower levels of sniffing and agonistic behavior than SALOIL females. All hormonal treatments reduced agonistic behaviors when compared to SALOIL, although none of the hormonal treatments restored affiliation to INT levels. During the 48-h test overt aggression varied by treatment with INT, EBEB, EBP, and OTEB females displaying lower levels than SALOIL, while all groups displayed similar levels of affiliation. The results indicate that OT and E play a significant role in regulating male-directed aggressive behavior in females and that the presence of ovarian hormones as well as OT can increase affiliation during initial contact. Over a sustained period of cohabitation social cues appear to be more important in regulating affiliation than gonadal hormones.
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PMID:Hormonal regulation of agonistic and affiliative behavior in female mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus). 1279 71

Investigations of the modulation of prostaglandin F(2alpha) receptor (FP) expression in primary cultures of human uterine myocytes showed that FP mRNA expression was reduced by progesterone, unaltered by cAMP (8-bromo cAMP or forskolin), but increased by the PKA antagonist H89. Interleukin (IL)-1beta, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and oxytocin increased FP mRNA expression and IL-6 and prostaglandin E(2) reduced FP mRNA expression. The changes in FP protein levels were similar to the mRNA responses. We found that the IL-1beta-induced increase in FP expression was mediated at least in part via protein kinase C (PKC), but was independent of mitogen-activated protein kinase, phospholipase C and PI3 kinase. Since IL-1beta activates NFkappaB, AP-1 and C/EBP, we over-expressed these transcription factors alone and in combination and found that only NFkappaB alone increased FP mRNA expression. Finally, we found that the IL-1beta-induced increase in FP expression was unaffected by progesterone and/or cAMP, but was accentuated by H89. These data suggest that the pregnancy-induced down-regulation in myometrial FP expression is mediated by progesterone and cAMP and that the increase with labour is induced by inflammatory cytokine activation of PKC and NFkappaB.
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PMID:Prostaglandin F2-alpha receptor regulation in human uterine myocytes. 1833 34