Oxytocin and vasopressin share a similar chemical structure but have different functions. Both hormones are produced in different brain areas, are transported through the hypophyseal portal system, pass to the anterior hypophysis, and released to reach their target organs. These hormones also act as neuromodulators, where its receptors are found in the lateral septum, the middle amygdala, the hippocampus, the hypothalamus, and the brain stem. These brain structures regulate socio-sexual behaviors in vertebrates. Moreover, the oxytocinergic and the vasopressin systems are sexually different. The sexual steroids promote oxytocin release and the oxytocin receptor synthesis, as well as promoting or inhibiting vasopressin release and its receptor genetic transcription. Both neuropeptides are involved in social recognition, male-female pair bonding, aggression, and cognition. Furthermore, the disruption or malfunctioning of the oxytocin and vasopressin systems adds to the causes of some psychiatric disorders like depression, schizophrenia, autism, and borderline personality.
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Sci Rep
January 2025
Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, IR-SANT PAU, CIBERER-U747 ISCIII, ENDO-ERN, Barcelona, Spain.
Increasing evidence supports the presence of oxytocin deficiency (OXT-D) in patients with hypopituitarism and hypothalamic damage (HHD), that might be associated with neuropsychological deficits and sexual dysfunction, leading to worse quality of life (QoL). Therefore, identifying a provocative test to diagnose an OXT-D will be important. Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is a candidate for such a test as it increases oxytocin secretion in animal models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHorm Mol Biol Clin Investig
January 2025
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, 37555 Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
January 2025
Department of Dental Anesthesiology, Osaka University Graduate School of Dentistry, 1-8 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan. Electronic address:
Pain is a major non-motor symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). The relationship between hyperalgesia and neuropeptides originating from paraventricular nucleus (PVN) in 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) rats has already been investigated for oxytocin (OXT), but not yet for arginine vasopressin (AVP) and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). The present study aimed to investigate the alterations in these neuropeptides following nociceptive stimulation in PD model rats and to examine the mechanisms of hyperalgesia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndocrine
December 2024
Department of Neurosurgery, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève (HUG), Geneva, Switzerland.
Purpose: Transient arginine vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D), previously called diabetes insipidus, is a well-known complication of transsphenoidal pituitary surgery (TPS) with no definite predictive biomarker to date making it difficult to anticipate. While oxytocin (OXT) was previously suggested as a possible biomarker to predict syndrome of inappropriate diuresis (SIAD)-related hyponatraemia after TPS, its secretion in patients presenting with AVP-D remains poorly understood. We therefore hypothesized that OXT might present a different secretion in the case of AVP-D which would support its potential as an early biomarker of AVP-D.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Headache Pain
December 2024
Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Getingevagen 4, Lund, 22185, Sweden.
Background: The purpose of this study was to examine whether there are sex differences in vasomotor responses and receptor localization of hormones and neuropeptides with relevance to migraine (vasopressin, oxytocin, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, amylin, adrenomedullin and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)) in human intracranial arteries.
Methods: Human cortical cerebral and middle meningeal arteries were used in this study. The tissues were removed in conjunction with neurosurgery and donated with consent.
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