Oxytocin is commonly referred to as the “love hormone,” and in honour of Valentine’s Day, we would like to offer the “Celebritide” version of this hormone.
Oxytocin is commonly referred to as the love hormone, thus in honour of Valentine’s Day, we would like to present to you the “Celebritide” structure of oxytocin (seen above). The hypothalamus is responsible for the production of oxytocin, which is then secreted by the posterior pituitary gland. Oxytocin is both a neuropeptide and a peptide hormone. The physiological process of giving birth causes it to be secreted, and it has a role in stimulating uterine contractions during labour, which ultimately assists in the delivery of the baby. After delivery, it plays a significant part in the process of social bonding between the mother and the infant, as well as in the stimulation of milk in the mother. The concept of love hormone may be traced back to the “bonding” activity that occurs during these interactions.
In point of fact, it was the very first synthetic peptide ever created for human use. Oxytocin is a relatively short peptide that consists of only nine residues and a single disulfide link. Dale was the first person to successfully isolate it in 1906. (1). During the early 1950s, du Vigneaud was the one who first successfully sequenced (2) the molecule and then went on to synthesise it (3-5). In 1955, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was bestowed upon Victor du Vigneaud for his research on oxytocin (6). Oxytocin is a vertebrate-specific peptide that is present in every species of the phylum Vertebrata.
It is currently common practise to provide synthetic oxytocin, also known as Pitocin or Syntocinon, to expectant mothers in order to both initiate and speed up the labour process. According to a study that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998, an estimated 16 percent of births in the United States are the result of labour induction, and an additional 16 percent of births that begin naturally are supplemented with inducing medicines. Just after the baby is born, oxytocin may be given to the mother in order to avoid postpartum haemorrhage in the event that the uterus does not continue to contract and bring an end to the bleeding. Less frequently, a formulation of oxytocin in the form of a nasal spray is occasionally administered to nursing moms who are having difficulty with milk let-down in the initial few days of breastfeeding.
Oxytocin was largely thought of as a pregnancy hormone by scientists for a considerable amount of time due to the prominent functions it plays in birthing and breastfeeding. In more recent times, researchers have uncovered a wide variety of unexpected effects of oxytocin in both males and females. The pleiotropic effects of oxytocin are more extensive than first thought by experts. When researchers saw that the same receptor that reaches such high concentrations in the labouring uterus is also found in other tissues in both men and women, including the brain, the heart, and the reproductive tract, they began to suspect that oxytocin played a more significant role than they had previously thought. In addition, a number of researchers have theorised that there may be one or more oxytocin receptors that have not yet been discovered. Oxytocin has a significant impact on the brain, but the nature of that impact is still mostly unknown. Oxytocin is not only a hormone that flows through the circulatory system in the form of blood, but it is also a neurotransmitter that can be found in nerve cells throughout the body, including the brain. The cells in the hypothalamus that are responsible for oxytocin production and distribution. These cells transmit oxytocin to the pituitary gland as well as other parts of the brain. In addition, cells in the hypothalamus are not the only cells in the body that are capable of producing oxytocin. It has been demonstrated that the ovaries, testicles, heart, and the walls of blood vessels are all capable of producing their own oxytocin.