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

Exposure of the preoptic-tuberoinfundibular system to iron ions causes ovulation in the pro-oestrous rat. This electrochemical treatment has been used frequently to study the way that the hypothalamus triggers secretion of gonadotrophic hormone and most investigators have assumed that the effect is mediated by the direct excitation of those neurones exposed to the cation. The present paper reports experiments designed to confirm that iron directly excites hypothalamic neurones to the firing frequencies essential for ovulation. Because of the difficulty of measuring input-output relationships in the diffuse preoptic-tuberoinfundibular system the experiments were performed on the anatomically distinct oxytocinergic neurones of the paraventricular-hypophysial tract in lactating rats. These neurones were simulated electrically (from 10 to 50 Hz for between 1 and 300 s) and subjected to the electrochemical treatment by depositing iron ions from the tip of the stimulating electrode (up to 250 muA anodal current for between 60 and 180 s). Changes in intramammary pressure were used to indicate oxytocin release and mammary glands were calibrated for sensitivity by intravenous injection of oxytocin. Electrical stimulation in excess of about 15 Hz invariably caused release of sufficient oxytocin to cause a rise in intramammary pressure. In contrast, no changes in pressure were observed during or after the electrochemical deposition of iron. The results suggest that the response of hypothalamic neurones to electrochemical treatment is not the same as their response to electrical stimulation.
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PMID:Electrochemical deposition of iron onto rat oxytocinergic neurones does not result in milk-ejection. 57 59

Data on prenatal, labor and delivery, and postnatal medication exposure to neonates were collected. During an 11-week period, 100 neonates consecutively admitted to a hospital were studied. The pharmacist obtained a social and medication history from the mothers and reviewed maternal anesthesia records and the charts of the neonates. Fifteen definite and possible adverse medication reactions were detected in 13 neonates. The median number of different medications ingested prenatally was 4.7. The four most commonly ingested prenatal medications were vitamins (97%), iron preparations (90%), headache/pain/arthritis medications (68%) and antinausea/vomiting medications (40%). The most commonly used medications during labor and delivery were oxytocin (73%), meperidine (33%) and promazine (25%). The use of strong narcotics during this period produced neonatal respiratory depression in some cases. The four most commonly prescribed postnatal medications were vitamin K1 (100%), gentamicin (10%), ampicillin (8%) and Poly-Vi-Sol (6%). The maternal interview indicated that most mothers were unaware of the influence that many medications can play upon the fetus. It is recommended that the pharmacist conduct a maternal medication interview prior to labor and delivery.
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PMID:Neonatal medication surveillance by the pharmacist. 87 83

The author relates her experience in Benin during a 3 and 1/2 year tenure as a nurse under the aegis of the German Development Agency. In Malanville, she was responsible for starting the operating room, caring for hygiene, sterility, and the related training of domestic staff. A septic and aseptic operating room was set up along with a storage room for instruments, a sterilization room, and a changing room. For the operating and surgical station, the following personnel were available: 2 nurses with 3 years of training, 1 nurse with 2 years of training, and 3 orderlies without training. A nurse with 3 years of training was assigned to the author to carry on the project after her departure. The standard of operating care was very low. It took a month to teach the staff what was not sterile. There was a even problem with putting on sterile gloves which required an exercise in patience. There were an average of 5 relatives per patient taking care of the patient and cooking. The undernutrition center for infants had 6 beds with 2 German nurses who administered Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), diphtheria, polio, and tetanus vaccinations. Their activity was strengthened by nutrition counselling and plans for underweight and malnourished children. Abrupt weaning that resulted in harmful diarrhea and vomiting was prevalent. Clinical signs of marasmus and kwashiorkor were frequent. In the middle of 1990, AIDS educators informed students of the public school as well as registered prostitutes about condom use. In the hospital, there were about 900 births per year, and women were asked to follow recommendations for prenatal care, especially to achieve anemia prevention by getting iron tablets. They were urged to deliver in the clinic, not at home assisted by untrained midwives. Oxytocin and syntometrin were available as was a hand-driven, vacuum evacuation pump. This experience made a lasting impression on the author who has resolved to go to another developing country to train traditional birth attendants in midwifery.
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PMID:[In Africa as a nurse]. 161 98

Hospital records were used to record, all drugs prescribed in the maternity ward, delivery characteristics and complications in both mother and infant at five university hospitals. The retrospective survey comprised 970 women and represented 10% of all vaginal deliveries in these hospitals in 1980, and 2% of all annual births in Norway. In total 90% of the women received drugs, excluding laxatives, oxytocics and long-term medication, vitamins and iron. Large variations were found between hospitals in respect of hypnotics (41-86%) and analgesics (65-95%). Of newborns 4-23% were treated with a drug. The large variation was largely due to frequent administration of naloxone at one of the hospitals. Drug utilization post partum was significantly higher in primipareas and in mothers who underwent interventions such as epidural anaesthesia, oxytocin drip, forceps delivery and tears. 98% of the babies were breast-fed on discharge and thus received milk potentially containing drugs. The frequent use of hypnotics indicates that breast-feeding mothers were treated like hospital patients in general. For the majority of the drugs used as a routine in the maternity wards there was no data or insufficient data on excretion in breast milk. The large discrepancy between hospitals as regards prescription of hypnotics and oxytocics to the mother and naloxone to the newborn was considered not to reflect rational prescription criteria and should therefore be reassessed.
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PMID:[Drugs for the mother and infant in the maternity ward. A study of 5 Norwegian university hospitals]. 277 76

The inhibitory action of oxytocin (OT) on adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) secretion has been disputed. Thus we evaluated the effect of exogenous OT on the elevated blood ACTH levels in normal human subjects. Metyrapone, a blocker of cortisol secretion, was given to enhance ACTH release. This experimental model was chosen because metyrapone-induced ACTH activation depends on diminution of the negative feed-back of cortisol, which is an important physiological mechanism in the control of ACTH secretion. A striking decline in plasma cortisol levels and a 10-fold rise in the mean plasma ACTH concentration was observed within 20 h after the beginning of metyrapone treatment (750 mg orally every 4 h). The administration of OT (2 IU as a i.v. bolus plus 4 IU infused in 2 h) significantly reduced the metyrapone-induced plasma ACTH rise. Since the effect of OT was evident when ACTH secretion was enhanced by a reduced cortisol-dependent negative feed-back, confirmation of the inhibitory action of OT on the ACTH secretory system in man is provided.
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PMID:Oxytocin reduces metyrapone-induced ACTH secretion in human subjects. 282 73

Capillary gas chromatographic 'steroid profiling' has been utilised to separate and quantify the metabolites (derivatized as methyloximes and/or trimethylsilyl ethers) formed from pregnenolone after incubation with rat testicular microsomes. A wide range of steroid metabolites was found, indicating that both the 5-ene and 4-ene pathways of testosterone biosynthesis were operating, as well as 16 alpha-hydroxylation, 20 beta-reduction and the formation of several C19 steroids (the 16-androstenes). At the concentration used, Metyrapone markedly inhibited 16 alpha- and 17-hydroxylation and side-chain cleavage of 17-hydroxylated C21 steroids. 16-Androstene production was also markedly inhibited and the formation of other metabolites was affected to lesser extents. Oxytocin abolished the formation of all C21 and C19 metabolites of pregnenolone.
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PMID:Inhibition of rat testicular microsomal steroidogenesis by oxytocin and metyrapone. 339 Jan 95

A procedure based on affinity chromatography for the extraction of ocytocin is described. Ocytocin antibody, covalently attached to a magnetizable iron suspension, retains its ability to bind ocytocin from blood plasma. The conjugate can be reused several times. Recovery of ocytocin was 60-70%, and the detection limit for the extraction assay was about 1 pg per tube. The specificity of the extraction method was characterized by HPLC/RIA on specimens extracted from blood plasma. The extracted material was found to be chomatographically identical with the reference ocytocin preparation. Comparison of RIA data for the same samples extracted by immunoextraction (y) and adsorption (x) showed a linear regression of y = 0.83 x + 2.12, r = 0.81, n = 17.
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PMID:Affinity chromatographic method for the extraction of ocytocin from human and rat plasma. 781 31

In neonatal calves besides adaptations in organ function there are marked metabolic and endocrine changes. The growth hormone (GH)-insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis is basically functioning, but needs maturation. Various metabolic and endocrine traits do not exhibit marked ontogenetic changes after the first week of life, but others remain different from the adult stage. Thus, plasma oxytocin or an oxytocin-like substance and nitrate concentrations are elevated for months. The ability to digest colostrum (C) and milk involves great alterations in structure and function of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. C intake is important for passive immunity, provision of nutrients, minerals and vitamins, and contains biologically active substances. IGF-I, present in C in high amounts, appears to enhance GI tract development and function. For sufficient absorption not only of immunoglobulins, but also of fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins, C should be ingested immediately after birth. The amino acid pattern and the glutamine/glutamate ratio depends greatly on whether C is fed or not. Effects on insulin, IGF-I, and IGF binding proteins depend on time-point and amounts of C fed. After the colostral period calves are almost exclusively fed milk and milk substitutes or weaned. Low iron intake, required for the production of pale meat, besides anemia causes metabolic and endocrine adaptations, such as enhanced insulin-dependent glucose utilization and appears to reduce IGF-I responses to GH. Metabolic and endocrine changes, such as insulin resistance and disturbed glucose metabolism, can be observed in part in association with high feeding intensity in veal calves.
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PMID:Endocrine and metabolic aspects in milk-fed calves. 1052 25

Oxytocin receptors (OTR) and vasopressin V1a receptors (V1aR) in the ventral forebrain play critical roles in the formation of pair bonds in the monogamous prairie vole. Previous reports have been inconsistent in the identification of the specific brain regions in the ventral forebrain that express these receptors. To delineate more clearly the neuroanatomical boundaries of the OTR and V1aR fields in this species, we compared OTR and V1aR binding in adjacent brain sections and also with markers that delineate neuroanatomical boundaries in the ventral forebrain. OTR binding displayed an overlapping distribution with substance P mRNA and preproenkephalin mRNA, both markers for the shell and core of the nucleus accumbens. V1aR binding was nonoverlapping with each of these markers but colocalized with iron accumulation as shown by Perls' iron stain as well as leucine-enkephalin immunoreactivity, both markers for the ventral pallidum. OTR and V1aR mRNA were also restricted within the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum, respectively. Furthermore, destruction of ventral striatal dopaminergic terminals with 6-hydroxydopamine infusions into the nucleus accumbens did not alter OTR binding. Immunocytochemical analysis of oxytocin and vasopressin in the ventral forebrain demonstrated the presence of oxytocin-immunoreactive fibers in the nucleus accumbens and vasopressin-immunoreactive fibers in the ventral pallidum, with males showing a greater density of vasopressin fibers than females, but there was no such sex difference in the oxytocin system. Based on these results, we discuss potential neural mechanisms by which receptors in these brain regions mediate pair bond formation in this monogamous species. J. Comp. Neurol. 468:555-570, 2004.
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PMID:Ventral striatopallidal oxytocin and vasopressin V1a receptors in the monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster). 1468 86

We tested the hypothesis that oxytocin-induced labor augmented IL-1beta-induced/-stimulated lung fluid absorption in preterm guinea pig fetuses. IL-1beta was administered subcutaneously daily to timed-pregnant guinea pigs for 3 days with and without simultaneous cortisol synthesis inhibition by metyrapone. At day 3, oxytocin was administered, and fetuses were delivered by abdominal hysterotomy at 61 and by oxytocin-induced birth at 68 days gestation. Delivered fetuses were instilled with isosmolar 5% albumin into the lungs, and lung fluid movement was measured over 1 h by mass balance. Lung fluid absorption was induced in 61-day and stimulated in 68-day gestation lungs by IL-1beta. Labor induction by oxytocin augmented IL-1beta-induced/-stimulated lung fluid absorption. Metyrapone pretreatment did not affect oxytocin-induced/-stimulated lung fluid absorption, while completely blocking IL-1beta-induced/-stimulated fluid absorption. Fetal lung fluid absorption, when present, was always propranolol and amiloride sensitive, suggesting that beta-adrenoceptor stimulation and amiloride-sensitive sodium channels were critical for fluid absorption. Epithelial sodium channel and Na-K-ATPase subunit expressions were both increased by IL-1beta, but not further by oxytocin. Our results indicate that IL-1beta release into the maternal blood circulation positively affects lung maturation due to the IL-1beta-induced release of cortisol and thus prepares the lungs for the epinephrine surge associated with labor.
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PMID:Oxytocin-induced labor augments IL-1beta-stimulated lung fluid absorption in fetal guinea pig lungs. 1608 71


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