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)

It is accepted that whilst hormones such as oxytocin, vasopressin and prostaglandin F2alpha induce myometrial contractions, essentially via an elevation of intracellular calcium, other ligands, such as beta-adrenoceptor agonists, calcitonin gene-related peptide, and prostaglandin E2, promote uterine quiescence via their ability to increase intracellular cyclic AMP levels. At present, the exact factors initiating human parturition remain unknown, and labour may occur due to a loss of uterine quiescence, an increase in uterine contractility, or a combination of both. Whilst many studies have aimed to understand the mechanisms underlying uterine contractility there is a relative paucity of data regarding myometrial relaxation. We have verified the presence of mRNA encoding adenylyl cyclase (AC) isoforms I, II, III, V, VI, VII, VIII and IX in both non-pregnant and pregnant human myometrium, and in isolated myometrial cells maintained in cell culture. Furthermore, by means of immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry, we have demonstrated the expression of these isoforms as membrane-associated AC proteins, and identified changes in individual AC isoform expression during gestation. These findings illustrate the diversity of potential cAMP generating pathways in human myometrium, and the complexity of the signal transduction systems underlying uterine quiescence. Experimental Physiology (2001) 86.2, 265-272.
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PMID:Uterine quiescence: the role of cyclic AMP. 1142 43

During increases in plasma osmolality, extrinsic and intrinsic stimuli converge on the neuroendocrine cells within the supraoptic nucleus (SON) and paraventricular nucleus and evoke the release of vasopressin (VP). This release is accompanied by an increase in VP synthesis, but the signal transduction pathways that coordinate these two processes are still poorly understood. Several transcription factors have been suggested to be intermediates in this process, but their expression is often transient in spite of continued VP synthesis. Transcription factor expression during chronic neuroendocrine cell stimulation has rarely been examined. In an effort to identify sustained increases, we examined the expression of several transcription factors in the SON of normal rats and rats deprived of water for 44 h. Alpha and beta isoforms of activator protein-2 (AP-2 alpha; AP-beta), activating transcription factor-2 (ATF-2), the phosphorylated form of cyclic AMP response element binding protein and phospho-cJun were all expressed in the rat SON under basal conditions. Increases in AP-2 alpha and ATF-2 were sustained throughout the SON during water deprivation, suggesting that these transcription factors could play a role in the maintenance of VP and oxytocin gene transcription in response to dehydration.
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PMID:Sustained increases in activating transcription factor-2 and activator protein-2 in the rat supraoptic nucleus during water deprivation. 1216 72

The aims of this work were to determine the influence of chronic electroconvulsive shock (ECS) on presynaptic 5-HT(1A) receptor function, postsynaptic 5-HT(1A) receptor function in hippocampus and hypothalamus, and presynaptic 5-HT(1B) receptor function in hippocampus and hypothalamus. This represents part of an on-going study of the effects of ECS on serotonergic receptor activity in selected brain areas which may be relevant to the effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in humans. Chronic ECS reduced the ability of the 5-HT(1A) receptor agonist 8-hydroxy-2(di-n-propylamino)tetraline (8-OH-DPAT) (0.2 mg/kg s.c.) to decrease 5-HT levels in hypothalamus as shown by in vivo microdialysis, indicative of a reduction in sensitivity of presynaptic 5-HT(1A) autoreceptors. The ability of the 5-HT(1B) receptor antagonist GR 127935 (5 mg/kg s.c.) to increase 5-HT levels in both hippocampus and hypothalamus was unaffected by chronic ECS. 8-OH-DPAT (0.2 mg/kg s.c.) increased cyclic AMP levels in hippocampus measured by in vivo microdialysis approximately 2-fold. The degree of stimulation of cyclic AMP formation was not altered by chronic ECS. However the cyclic AMP response to forskolin (50 micro M) administered via the microdialysis probe, which was approximately 4-fold of basal in sham-treated rats, was almost completely abolished in ECS-treated rats. Since this indicates that either adenylate cyclase catalytic unit activity or Gs protein activity is reduced in the hippocampus after chronic ECS, the lack of change in 8-OH-DPAT-induced cyclic AMP formation may be taken as possible evidence of an increase in sensitivity of postsynaptic 5-HT(1A) receptors in the hippocampus by chronic ECS. Chronic ECS increased basal plasma levels of corticosterone, ACTH and oxytocin. The ACTH response to s.c. injections of 0.2 mg/kg or 0.5 mg/kg 8-OH-DPAT was reduced by chronic ECS. Postsynaptic 5-HT(1A) receptor activity in the hypothalamus, in contrast to the hippocampus, thus appears to be desensitized after chronic ECS. We conclude that chronic ECS has regionally specific effects on both pre- and post-synaptic 5-HT(1A) receptors, but, in contrast to some antidepressant drugs, does not affect presynaptic 5-HT(1B) receptor activity.
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PMID:Functional effects of chronic electroconvulsive shock on serotonergic 5-HT(1A) and 5-HT(1B) receptor activity in rat hippocampus and hypothalamus. 1236 4

Oxytocin is an essential hormone for mammalian labor and lactation. Here, we show a new function of oxytocin in causing plastic changes in hippocampal synapses during motherhood. In oxytocin-perfused hippocampal slices, one-train tetanus stimulation induced long-lasting, long-term potentiation (L-LTP) and phosphorylation of cyclic AMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB), and MAP kinase inhibitors blocked these inductions. An increase in CREB phosphorylation and L-LTP induced by one-train tetanus were observed in the multiparous mouse hippocampus without oxytocin application. Furthermore, intracerebroventricular injection of oxytocin in virgin mice improved long-term spatial learning in vivo, whereas an injection of oxytocin antagonist in multiparous mice significantly inhibited the improved spatial memory, L-LTP and CREB phosphorylation. These findings indicate that oxytocin is critically involved in improving hippocampus-dependent learning and memory during motherhood in mice.
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PMID:Oxytocin improves long-lasting spatial memory during motherhood through MAP kinase cascade. 1265 76

The mechanism of labour is not fully understood and further research into this important physiological process is needed. In some species, notably sheep, parturition is due to activation of the fetal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, in primates, this axis appears to have a supportive, rather than essential role. Successful parturition requires an increase in coordinated uterine contractility together with changes in connective tissue that allow cervical ripening and dilatation. In most mammals, however, these changes are synchronised by a fall in maternal progesterone levels and a rise in oestrogens. This is not the case in women in whom the onset of labour occurs without apparent changes in circulating steroid levels. The basis of uterine contractility is the interaction between actin and myosin in myometrial smooth muscle cells. This is driven by calcium through Ca(2+)-calmodulin-dependent myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) activity. Moreover, calcium sensitisation occurs via activation of Rho kinase, a calcium-independent pathway that promotes contractility by inhibiting myosin phosphatase and probably by phosphorylating myosin on the same site as MLCK. Uterine activity can be modulated by many G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). For example, receptors coupled to Galpha(q) (oxytocin-, prostanoid FP and TP, endothelin-receptors) stimulate contractility by activating the phospholipase C/Ca(2+) pathway; receptors coupled to Galpha(s) (beta(2)-adrenoceptors, prostanoid EP2 and IP, some 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors e.g. 5-HT(7)) relax the uterus by increasing myometrial cyclic AMP levels; and receptors coupled to Galpha(i) (alpha(2)-adrenoceptors, muscarinic, 5-HT(1)) potentiate contractility, probably by inhibiting cAMP production. Because of its relative abundance in pregnant uterine tissue, the oxytocin receptor is an obvious target for tocolytic therapy. Oxytocin antagonists have been introduced into clinical practice for the management of preterm labour and offer the advantage of uterine selectivity and fewer side effects than conventional beta-agonist therapy.
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PMID:Mechanisms of labour--biochemical aspects. 1276 10

Osmotic water flow (Jw) across tight distal nephron epithelial membranes increases upon exposure to vasopressin: following binding of the hormone to its receptors, intracellular cyclic AMP concentration increases, leading to insertion of aquaporins in the apical membrane. The involvement of intercellular communication in the process, however, has not been adequately explored. Octanol, 1.2 x 10(-3) M, a gap junction inhibitor, significantly reduced Jw (expressed as mg.20 min(-1)) in isolated toad urinary bladders (a model of the distal nephron) subjected to a transepithelial osmotic gradient and exposed to agents mimicking the vasopressin-triggered mechanism: oxytocin, 50 mIU.mL(-1) (from 185.3 +/- 28.0, P < 0.001, to 69.0 +/- 23.6, P < 0.05; Pdiff < 0.01, n = 6), and cyclic AMP, 2.5 x 10(-3) M (from 98.0 +/- 32.6, P < 0.02, to 31.0 +/- 13.9, NS; Pdiff < 0.05, n = 12), without altering the effect of nystatin, 450 U.mL(-1), which increases Jw via a mechanism unrelated to apical aquaporin insertion (163.2 +/- 16.3, P < 0.001, in controls vs. 150.3 +/- 10.4, P < 0.001, in octanol-treated bladders; Pdiff: NS, n = 6). Another gap junction blocker, carbenoxolone, 2.0 x 10(-4) M (CBX), exerted similar effects on the responses to oxytocin, 100 mIU.mL(-1), reducing the response from 256.7 +/- 33.6, P < 0.001, to 102.7 +/- 10.4, P < 0.001; Pdiff < 0.01, n = 6) and nystatin, which was unaffected (95.0 +/- 20.9, P < 0.01, vs. 132.0 +/- 27.0, P < 0.01; Pdiff: NS, n = 6). Our results suggest that either gap junctions or, alternatively, unopposed gap junction hemichannels, may be important in the regulation of Jw in the isolated toad bladder, by modulating a step in the physiological process leading to increased apical membrane permeability.
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PMID:Permeability to water in a tight epithelium: possible modulating action of gap junctions. 1538 66

Abstract Vasopressin and oxytocin genes are expressed in mutually exclusive sets of magnocellular neurons in the hypothalamus. Cell specificity and regulation are probably controlled by extra- and intracellular signals acting on one or the other gene. In order to identify factors that regulate peptide expression, we have used primary dissociated cultures derived from 14-day old foetal rats. Vasopressin expression was monitored by combined immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization. Treatment of cultures with forskolin and/or the phosphodiesterase inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX), both of which result in elevated intracellular cyclic AMP levels, increased the numbers of vasopressin-expressing cells up to 10-fold. The specific Vasopressin messenger ribonucleic acid accumulation was verified quantitatively by ribonuclease protection assays. Forskolin and IBMX did not change the levels of the general neuronal markers, neuron-specific enolase and synaptophysin, suggesting that the effect of these drugs was specific for vasopressin-expressing cells. The drugs were not mitogenic for magnocellular neurons. Furthermore, their effect was not mediated trans-synaptically, as the drugs were also effective in cultures grown in low Ca(2+)/high Mg(2+) medium, as well as in cultures treated with either tetanus toxin or tetrodotoxin. The presence of putative response elements for the transcription factor AP-2 in the 5'promoter regions of all vasopressin genes sequenced so far may provide the molecular basis of the observed cyclic AMP effect. No such elements are present in the genes for oxytocin, the messenger ribonucleic acid levels of which were not measurably affected by forskolin and IBMX in our cultures.
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PMID:Vasopressin Expression in Cultured Neurons is Stimulated by Cyclic AMP. 1921 30

Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels are nonselective cation channels opened by binding of intracellular cyclic GMP or cyclic AMP. CNG channels mediate sensory transduction in the rods and cones of the retina and in olfactory sensory neurons, but in addition, CNG channels are also expressed elsewhere in the CNS, where their physiological roles have not yet been well defined. Besides the CNG channel subtypes that mediate vision and olfaction, zebrafish has an additional subtype, CNGA5, which is expressed almost exclusively in the brain. We have generated CNGA5-specific monoclonal antibodies, which we use here to show that immunoreactivity for CNGA5 channels is highly enriched in synaptic terminals of a discrete set of neurons that project to a subregion of the pituitary, as well as diffusely in the brain and spinal cord. Double labeling with a variety of antibodies against pituitary hormones revealed that CNGA5 is located in the terminals of neuroendocrine cells that secrete the nonapeptide hormone/transmitter isotocin in the neurohypophysis, brain, and spinal cord. Furthermore, we show that CNGA5 channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes are highly permeable to Ca(2+), which suggests that the channels are capable of modulating isotocin release in the zebrafish brain and pituitary. Isotocin is the teleost homolog of the mammalian hormone oxytocin, and like oxytocin, it regulates reproductive and social behavior. Therefore, the high calcium permeability of CNGA5 channels and their strategic location in isotocin-secreting synaptic terminals suggest that activation of CNGA5 channels in response to cyclic nucleotide signaling may have wide-ranging neuroendocrine and behavioral effects.
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PMID:A novel cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel enriched in synaptic terminals of isotocin neurons in zebrafish brain and pituitary. 1977 92

Expression of genes that encode oxytocin (OXT) and vasopressin (AVP) and their cognate receptors in normal and diseased prostates are only partially characterized. Reverse transcription and PCR were used to examine the expression of these genes in normal prostate epithelial and stromal cell lines, k-ras-transformed prostate epithelial cell lines, and in four prostate cancer cell lines. Secreted and cell-associated OXT peptide was measured by an enzyme immunoassay. OXT and its receptor (OXTR) were expressed in all eight prostate cell lines. Cell-associated OXT peptide was also found in all prostate epithelial cell lines except in DU145 cells. Neither AVP nor its cognate receptors (V1a receptor and V2 receptor) were expressed in any prostate cell line examined. These data point to the OXTR as the primary target of OXT and AVP, and suggest that OXT might be an autocrine/paracrine regulator in human prostate. We found that OXT induces the migration of PC3 and PC3M, but not DU145 prostate cancer cells. The effect of OXT is distinct from the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-induced migration of prostate cancer cells, in which ERK1/2 and EGF receptor kinase activities were required. When cells were pretreated with pertussis toxin, the effect of OXT, but not EGF, on cell migration was abolished. Pretreatment with the cyclic AMP analogue, 8-Br-cAMP, did not affect OXT-induced cell migration, which eliminated the nonspecific effect of pertussis toxin. We conclude that a Gi-dependent mechanism is involved in OXTR-mediated migration of prostate cancer cells, and indicates a role for OXTR in prostate cancer metastasis.
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PMID:Oxytocin induces the migration of prostate cancer cells: involvement of the Gi-coupled signaling pathway. 2066 60

Phosphorylation of heat shock protein 20 (Hsp20) by protein kinase A (PKA) is now recognized as an important regulatory mechanism modulating contractile activity in the human myometrium. Thus agonists that stimulate cyclic AMP production may cause relaxation with resultant beneficial effects on pathologies that affect this tissue such as the onset of premature contractions prior to term. Here we describe for the first time that acetylation of Hsp20 is also a potent post-translational modification that can affect human myometrial activity. We show that histone deacetylase 8 (HDAC8) is a non-nuclear lysine deacetylase (KDAC) that can interact with Hsp20 to affect its acetylation. Importantly, use of a selective linkerless hydroxamic acid HDAC8 inhibitor increases Hsp20 acetylation with no elevation of nuclear-resident histone acetylation nor marked global gene expression changes. These effects are associated with significant inhibition of spontaneous and oxytocin-augmented contractions of ex vivo human myometrial tissue strips. A potential molecular mechanism by which Hsp20 acetylation can affect myometrial activity by liberating cofilin is described and further high-lights the use of specific effectors of KDACs as therapeutic agents in regulating contractility in this smooth muscle.
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PMID:Acetylation of heat shock protein 20 (Hsp20) regulates human myometrial activity. 2180 75


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