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)

Sixty patients in need of labor induction were observed to compare the effectiveness of oxytocin and of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in ripening the cervix. Initial Bishop score was 4 or less in all patients. Patients were divided into 4 groups: A) controls, to whom no medication was given; B) who were given intravenous oxytocin on an incremental regime; C)oup C who were given 0.5 mg PGE2 orally every hour for 10 hours; and, D) who were given 1 mg of PGF2 hourly for 10 hours. All patients were brought to the delivery room at the same time the following morning and oxytocin was again injected till labor was established. Labor was significantly shorter in group D than in groups A, B, or even C. A 1 mg dose of oral PGF2 hourly for 10 hours the day before delivery seemed to be an effective method to deal with the problem. There were no maternal side effects and only 1 case of fetal distress, which was solved by cesarean delivery.
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PMID:Intravenous oxytocin and oral prostaglandin E2 for ripening of the unfavourable cervix. 33 22

A paradigm was developed for the chronic osmotic stimulation of homozygous diabetes insipidus rats of the Brattleboro strain, a strain that fails to synthesize vasopressin. This study examines the adaptation of 2 sets of coexisting peptide hormone magnocellular neurons in the hypothalamoneurohypophyseal system (HNS) of Long Evans (LE), Brattleboro heterozygote (HZ), and Brattleboro homozygote (DI) rats: (1) the arginine8-vasopressin (AVP)/dynorphin (DYN) neurons, and (2) the oxytocin (OT)/cholecystokinin (CCK8) neurons of the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei, which project to the posterior pituitary. The regimen of chronic intermittent salt-loading (CISL) involved the replacement of 2% saline for normal drinking water for 18 hr/d. This protocol effectively increased plasma levels of AVP and OT in LE and HZ rats, oxytocin in DI rats, and maintained the posterior pituitary in a state depleted of AVP, OT, CCK, and peptides derived from pro-dynorphin: DYN A 1-17, DYN A 1-8, and DYN B 1-13. The ratio of pituitary DYN A 1-17 to DYN A 1-8 content in DI rats or in LE, HZ, and DI rats following 6 d of CISL suggests a preferential release of DYN A 1-17 during periods of chronic secretory activity. In response to chronic secretory activity, mRNAs for AVP, OT, DYN, and CCK increased 1.5-2-fold in all 3 AVP rat strains, with mRNAs for coexisting peptide hormones displaying parallel increases. Mutant AVP mRNA in the DI rat was expressed at very low levels and DYN mRNA in very high levels, with each of these mRNAs continuing to be regulated by CISL in a normal manner. These results suggest a regulatory relationship between AVP and OT neurons, in which vasopressin neurons are feedback-regulated by AVP, most likely via plasma osmolarity, and that oxytocin neurons are modulated by peptides derived from pro-dynorphin.
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PMID:Regulation of hypothalamic magnocellular neuropeptides and their mRNAs in the Brattleboro rat: coordinate responses to further osmotic challenge. 290 13

Oxytocin secretion in dairy cows was measured during milking by means of a specific radioimmunoassay. Basal oxytocin concentrations before milking recorded from 147 milkings from 21 cows, where an assay method with enhanced sensitivity was employed, were 1.5 +/- 0.6 pmol/l and there was no evidence for any conditioned release of oxytocin. A 1-min manual stimulation before milking evoked a variable but distinct increase in oxytocin concentrations in 188 out of 195 milkings performed using 29 cows. Despite the high variation in absolute concentrations five types of typical secretion pattern could be distinguished. There was no obvious relationship between patterns or absolute concentrations of oxytocin and milk-flow characteristics. Evidence is given that milk ejection seems to follow the threshold principle in that small releases of oxytocin up to a range of 3-5 pmol/l plasma are sufficient to evoke maximum milk ejection.
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PMID:Oxytocin secretion during milking in dairy cows with regard to the variation and importance of a threshold level for milk removal. 654 Dec 40

Noradrenalin (NA) regulates the expression of arginine-vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT) by magnocellular neurons in the supraoptic nucleus (SON) of the hypothamalus. Nitric oxide (NO) may be one of the factors involved in the NA signaling pathway regulating AVP and OT expression. To test this possibility, we used an ex vivo experimental model of mouse hypothalamus slices. Increases in AVP and OT levels in the SON were detected by immunohistochemistry and immunoenzyme assays after 1 hr and 4 hr incubations with NA (10(-4) M). There was also an increase in the expression and activity of neuronal NOS and inducible NOS in the SON as assessed by immunohistochemical and histoenzymological analysis of NADPH-diaphorase, whereas endothelial NOS was undetectable. To specify the role of NO, the slices were treated with NA and L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, an NOS inhibitor; 3 microM). This treatment for 1 hr abolished the NA-induced increase in AVP. Treatment with sodium nitroprusside (SNP, an NO donor; 0.1 mM) increased AVP levels, confirming that NO regulates AVP expression. Addition of 1 mM EGTA during the incubation with NA reduced the AVP increase by half, indicating that both nNOS and iNOS activities are involved in the regulation. A 1-hr treatment with L-NAME did not prevent the increase in OT induced by NA; similarly, treatment with SNP had no effect. These findings show that NO is involved in the regulation of AVP expression by NA and that NA control of OT expression is independent of NO.
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PMID:Noradrenergic regulation in mouse supraoptic nucleus involves a nitric oxide pathway only to regulate arginine-vasopressin expression and not oxytocin expression. 1762

Gastric electrical stimulation (GES) has been proposed as a therapeutic option for obesity. However, its clinical efficacy is not proven, and its mechanisms remain largely unknown. To compare the peripheral and central neural and behavioral effects in rats of GES with a pulse width currently used in clinical trials (GES-A: 6 mA, 0.3 ms, 40 Hz, 2 s on, 3 s off) and GES with a wider pulse (GES-B: same as GES-A, except that the pulse width is 3 ms). Experiment 1: assessing gastric volume changes as a result of GES. Experiment 2: recording the extracellular potentials of a single neuron in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) with GES. Experiment 3: determining the effects of GES on oxytocin-immunoreactive (OT-IR) neuron expression in the hypothalamus. Experiment 4: determining the effects of GES on food intake and body weight. GES-B, but not GES-A, significantly increased gastric volume. GES-B activated a higher percentage of gastric distention-responsive neurons in the PVN (93% vs. 81%, P = 0.021) and elicited more intensive neuronal responses than GES-A. The number of OT-IR neurons was significantly increased in the PVN and supraoptic nucleus with both methods of GES compared with control groups. The increase in OT-IR neurons in the PVN was higher with GES-B than with GES-A. A 1-week GES treatment significantly reduced daily food intake and body weight. GES-B was more potent than GES-A in producing weight loss (P < 0.001). The effects of GES depend on the stimulation pulse width. GES with a wider pulse is more effective both peripherally and centrally and more potent in reducing body weight in rats.
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PMID:Gastric electrical stimulation for obesity: the need for a new device using wider pulses. 1905 30