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

Antisense peptides, amino acid sequences encoded in the antisense strand of DNA, can interact with significant affinity and selectivity with their corresponding sensepeptides. Experimentally, sense-antisense peptide recognition has been observed repeatedly. However, skepticism about the biological relevance of this phenomenon has persisted. This is due in part to the unexpected and somewhat couterintutive nature of the interaction as well as to its non-universality as an empirical observation. Nonetheless, antisense peptides in several cases investigated so far have been used as immobilized ligands for the successful affinity chromatographic separation of native (sense) peptides and proteins. For example, immobilized antisense peptides corresponding to Arg8-vasopressin (AVP) have been used to separate vasopressin from oxytocin chromatographically as well as to affinity capture AVP-receptor complex. These results, together with improved understanding of the general features of amino acid sequence which drive antisense-sense peptide interactions as well as new ideas for making antisense peptides chimeras, are beginning to suggest improved ways to make antisense-related peptides as affinity agents for separation as well as for other biotechnology applications.
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PMID:Interactions and uses of antisense peptides in affinity technology. 151 30

Expression of the gene encoding the oxytocin precursor occurs in the hypothalamus and, to a lesser extent, in a number of peripheral organs, the tissue-specific regulatory mechanisms of which are largely unknown. By DNA sequence analysis several elements upstream of the transcriptional start point of the rat oxytocin gene were identified matching the consensus sequence of enhancers inducible by estrogen or glucocorticoids, respectively. Their general transactivating capacities were investigated using heterologous gene constructs and revealed that the rat oxytocin gene harbours two functional estrogen responsive elements near the transcription initiation site, one of which is conserved in the respective human gene. In addition, one enhancer conferring glucocorticoid responsiveness to a reporter gene is located at nucleotide residues -2449 to -2464. These data might indicate a steroid hormone-mediated influence on oxytocin gene expression in the central nervous system and/or the periphery.
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PMID:Functional characterization of estrogen and glucocorticoid responsive elements in the rat oxytocin gene. 164 32

Retinoids are known to have profound effects on cellular differentiation and embryo pattern formation. In the adult organism, retinoid acid (RA) receptors are present in a large variety of tissues, including brain. However, little is known of the precise roles of RA at these different sites. In the present study we have identified a novel potential target of RA action by identifying an RA response element (RARE) in the human oxytocin (OT) gene promoter. We have used DNA-mediated gene transfer techniques to introduce various portions of the OT 5'-flanking sequences next to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene in neuroblastoma cells. RA elicited a marked stimulation of the transcriptional activity of the OT promoter in cells cotransfected with either the human RA receptor alpha, beta, or gamma. In cells cotransfected with the RA receptor alpha, the ED50 of this response was 5 x 10(-10) M. The RA response could also be conferred to a heterologous promoter independent of orientation. 5'-Deletions as well as site-directed mutations demonstrated that four TGACC motifs, located at -162, -156, -103, and -83 in the OT promoter, are necessary for optimal RA induction. Mutation or deletion of any of these elements reduces significantly the RA response. Interestingly, the first two TGACC motifs overlap with the estrogen response element that we have previously characterized in this gene. Furthermore, the TGACC motif located at -83 overlaps with the CCAAT box. We further demonstrate that in neuroblastoma cells transfected with an RAR alpha expression vector expression of the endogenous OT gene is stimulated greater than 4-fold in response to RA. Our studies constitute the first report of a RARE in a neuropeptide gene and define a mechanism by which OT gene expression can be modulated by retinoic acid.
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PMID:Identification of a retinoic acid response element in the human oxytocin promoter. 165 67

Sequence analysis of the rat vasopressin and oxytocin gene family reveals that the two genes are linked by a long interspersed repeated DNA element (LINE) giving rise to seven long open reading frames encoding hypothetical proteins of 99 to 556 amino acid residues. Furthermore, although both DNA strands of LINEs serve as templates for transcription, transcripts initiated at the 3' end are more abundant than those started from the 5' end. The LINEs are transcribed preferentially in brain tissues as analyzed by Northern blot, in situ hybridization, and RNase protection experiments. The data show that most LINEs are transcribed at their entire length and that a major fraction of respective RNAs does not enter the cytoplasm but remains in the cell nucleus.
DNA Cell Biol 1991 Mar
PMID:Rat vasopressin and oxytocin genes are linked by a long interspersed repeated DNA element (LINE): sequence and transcriptional analysis of LINE. 170 87

The status of the arginine vasopressin-neurophysin-II (AVP-NPII) gene was studied in three families with autosomal dominant neurohypophyseal diabetes insipidus (AD-NDI). Restriction fragments of genomic DNA containing AVP-NPII sequences from affected individuals were not detectably different in size from those of normal controls. Thus, these individuals with ADNDI do not have apparent large deletions, insertions, or rearrangements of an AVP-NPII allele. Four restriction fragment length polymorphisms were detected with a probe for the adjacent gene on chromosome 20, oxytocin-neurophysin-I (OT-NPI). Linkage studies in these three families between the restriction fragment length polymorphism haplotypes and ADNDI phenotype strongly suggest cosegregation. This indicates that the genetic locus for ADNDI maps within or near the AVP-NPII locus and suggests that a defective AVP-NPII allele may be the basis of ADNDI.
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PMID:Molecular analysis of autosomal dominant neurohypophyseal diabetes insipidus. 196 69

cDNA clones encoding two members of the vasotocin hormone precursor gene family have been isolated from the white sucker Catostomus commersoni. The hormone is encoded by at least two distinct genes, both of which are expressed, as indicated by Northern blot analysis. Genomic DNA amplified by the polymerase chain reaction has been used to define exon-intron boundaries. Both vasotocin genes contain introns in positions corresponding to those found in the gene of their mammalian counterpart vasopressin. The predicted vasotocin precursors show a surprising degree of sequence divergence, amounting to 45% at the amino acid level, of which only approximately half can be accounted for by conservative amino acid changes. The precursors include a hormone moiety followed by a putative neurophysin sequence that is longer at the C-terminus by a tract of some 30 amino acids by comparison to their mammalian counterpart. Each of these sequences contains a leucine-rich core segment resembling that found in copeptin, a glycopeptide moiety present in mammalian vasopressin precursors.
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PMID:Vasotocin genes of the teleost fish Catostomus commersoni: gene structure, exon-intron boundary, and hormone precursor organization. 197 Jul 42

The structural genes for human prepro-arginine-vasopressin-neurophysin II (prepro-AVP-NPII; ARVP) locus and prepro-oxytocin-neurophysin-I (prepro-OT-NPI; OT) locus are closely linked separated by only 12 kilobasepairs of DNA. These two loci have been assigned to chromosome 20 by previous studies of somatic cell hybrids. We used Southern blots to analyze a restriction fragment length polymorphism detected by a probe for prepro-OT-NPI to determine the linkage relationships for the ARVP/OT loci using samples from the Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (Paris, France) collection of families. The ARVP/OT loci demonstrated extremely close linkage with the prodynorphin (PDYN) locus, with no recombinants (theta of 0) and a log10 odds score of 5.2. Previous observations have shown the ARVP and PDYN peptides to be coexcreted in the same neurosecretory granules of some pituitary axons and that increased transcription of both genes occurs with osmotic stimulation. The combined ARVP/PT/PDYN group was also found to demonstrate linkage with other anonymous DNA segments on chromosome 20, including D20S4, D20S5, and D20S6. Using multilocus linkage analysis, the ARVP/OT loci map to the distal short arm of chromosome 20 about 15 centimorgans toward the telomere from the D20S5 locus, which is located near the middle of the short arm at 20p 12.21. These linkage relationships establish that the secretory and transcriptional associations of ARVP and PDYN extend to a close physical relationship in the human genome. Furthermore, the restriction fragment length polymorphism detected by these loci can serve as accurate markers in segregation studies of putative defects involving the OT, ARVP, or PDYN loci as well as provide a tool for studying the location of other genes, such as GH-releasing hormone.
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PMID:Linkage relationships of human arginine vasopressin-neurophysin-II and oxytocin-neurophysin-I to prodynorphin and other loci on chromosome 20. 197 46

DNA sequences in the 5'-flanking region of rat and bovine oxytocin genes were examined for their capacity to confer estrogen responsiveness to their homologous promoters. In contrast to the 5'-flanking region of the rat oxytocin gene, upstream promoter sequences up to 3200 bp of the bovine gene linked to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene which were transfected in estrogen receptor expressing MCF-7 cells did not respond to estrogen. Testing 5'-deletion mutants of the rat upstream region linked to the luciferase gene in P19 embryocarcinoma cells co-transfected with an estrogen receptor expression plasmid showed that two regions each associated with approximately 15-fold stimulation of promoter activity were located between nucleotides -172 and -149 and between -148 and +16 in the rat gene. The former region contains the imperfect palindrome GGTGACCTTGACC which differs in one nucleotide from the estrogen response element (ERE) consensus. It is concluded that the corresponding motive CATAACCTTGACC of the bovine gene is not a functional ERE. Thus, the estrogen responsiveness of oxytocin genes is species-dependent.
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PMID:Comparison of the estrogen responsiveness of the rat and bovine oxytocin gene promoters. 199 97

Gonadal steroids affect brain function primarily by altering the expression of specific genes, yet the specific mechanisms by which neuronal target genes undergo such regulation are unknown. Recent evidence suggests that the expression of the neuropeptide gene for oxytocin (OT) is modulated by estrogens. We therefore examined the possibility that this regulation occurred via a direct interaction of the estrogen-receptor complex with cis-acting elements flanking the OT gene. DNA-mediated gene transfer experiments were performed using Neuro-2a neuroblastoma cells and chimeric plasmids containing portions of the human OT gene 5'-glanking region linked to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene. We identified a 19-base pair region located at -164 to -146 upstream of the transcription start site which is capable of conferring estrogen responsiveness to the homologous as well as to a heterologous promoter. The hormonal response is strictly dependent on the presence of intracellular estrogen receptors, since estrogen induced stimulation occurred only in Neuro-2a cells co-transfected with an expression vector for the human estrogen receptor. The identified region contains a novel imperfect palindrome (GGTGACCTTGACC) with sequence similarity to other estrogen response elements (EREs). To define cis-acting elements that function in synergism with the ERE, sequences 3' to the ERE were deleted, including the CCAAT box, two additional motifs corresponding to the right half of the ERE palindrome (TGACC), as well as a CTGCTAA heptamer similar to the "elegans box" found in Caenorhabditis elegans. Interestingly, optimal function of the identified ERE was fully independent of these elements and only required a short promoter region (-49 to +36). Our studies define a molecular mechanism by which estrogens can directly modulate OT gene expression. However, only a subset of OT neurons are capable of binding estrogens, therefore, direct action of estrogens on the OT gene may be restricted to a subpopulation of OT neurons.
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PMID:The human oxytocin gene promoter is regulated by estrogens. 210 52

We investigated effects of various agents on proliferation, intracellular pH (pHi), and intracellular calcium [( Ca2+]i) of rat mesangial cells (MCs) in early passages (2-5). Serum-starved MCs incubated in HCO3- were exposed to one of the following: fetal calf serum (FCS), serotonin, angiotensin II (ANG II), arginine vasopressin (AVP), bombesin (Bom), bradykinin (BK), epidermal growth factor (EGF), epinephrine (Epi), interleukin 1 (IL-1), norepinephrine (NE), neuropeptide Y, oxytocin, substance P (SP), platelet-derived growth factor, or 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). We assessed DNA synthesis from [3H]thymidine uptake during exposure to test agent. All agents except ANG II, NE, Bom, and SP were mitogenic. When MCs were incubated in a HCO3(-) -free N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid-buffered medium, maximal mitogenic responses to FCS, AVP, and EGF were 41, 44, and 55% (P less than 0.01) lower, respectively, than those in presence of HCO3-. In absence of HCO3-, agents other than BK and IL-1 produced a biphasic pHi response characterized by a transient acidification followed by a prolonged alkalinization that was both Na(+)-dependent and amiloride-sensitive. In presence of HCO3-, agents produced only a small and gradual acidification, except for IL-1 and Epi. Addition of all agonists except IL-1, EGF, and TPA produced significant transient increases in [Ca2+]i, the magnitudes of which were similar in HCO3- and non-HCO3- buffers. These results demonstrate that, in presence of HCO3-, agents (i.e., NE and ANG II) can produce typical [Ca2+]i transients and still not cause MC proliferation. Conversely, an agent may cause proliferation without eliciting a short-term change in either [Ca2+]i or pHi (i.e., IL-1), a change in [Ca2+]i but not pHi (i.e., Epi), or a change in pHi but not [Ca2+]i (i.e., TPA). Thus, at least for MCs, proliferation in HCO3- can be dissociated from early agonist-induced changes in pHi and [Ca2+]i.
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PMID:Effects of mitogens and other agents on rat mesangial cell proliferation, pH, and Ca2+. 211 98


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