Current Advances in Oxytocin Research, 2nd Edition
A special issue of Current Issues in Molecular Biology (ISSN 1467-3045). This special issue belongs to the section "Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 31
Special Issue Editor
Interests: oxytocin; thermoregulation; skeletal muscle; obesity; Prader–Willi syndrome
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The discovery of the pituitary neurohormone oxytocin led to the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry being awarded to Vincent du Vigneaud. This represented the culmination of a research programme dating back to 1895, when Oliver and Schafer reported that a substance extracted from the pituitary gland elevates blood pressure when intravenously injected into dogs. Dale later reported on a neurohypophysial substance that triggers uterine contraction, stimulates lactation and alleviates antidiuresis. Purification of pituitary gland extracts revealed that this vasopressor and antidiuretic activity could be attributed to vasopressin, and the uterotonic and lactation-promoting activity could be attributed to oxytocin. In 1950, the amino acid sequences of vasopressin and oxytocin were determined, and both peptides were chemically synthesised. This revealed that vasopressin (CYFQNCPRG-NH2) and oxytocin (CYIQNCPLG-NH2) are structurally very similar, with only two amino acids differing, which is indicative of their common evolutionary origin and the conservation of a disulphide bridge between the cysteine residues at positions 1 and 6 in all vasopressin/oxytocin-type peptides. The common evolutionary origin of vasopressin and oxytocin, as indicated by their structural similarity, dates back millions of years ago, which suggests that oxytocin has effects that go beyond uterine contractions and pregnancy. Nevertheless, this evidence was uncovered only 50 years after oxytocin’s discovery, in early 2000, when mice depleted of either oxytocin or its receptor developed late onset obesity and metabolic syndrome, thus establishing the involvement of oxytocin in the regulation of energy and metabolism. Interestingly, the metabolic phenotype of oxytocin- and oxytocin receptor-deficient mice diverges in young versus older animals, taking time to take full effect, and is established in the absence of hyperphagia. The effects of oxytocin on fat and energy are both direct, since oxytocin is anorexigenic, but they are indirect when oxytocin regulates the lean/fat mass composition in skeletal muscle, potentiating the slow-twitch muscle as it does in the uterus. Finally, while oxytocin negatively modulates adipogenesis, peripheral oxytocin promotes osteoblast differentiation and function, leading to increased bone formation through the direct effect of oxytocin binding to its receptor on osteoblasts. Based on these findings, it appears that oxytocin acts on the three components of body composition: fat, muscle and bone. Evolutionarily, it makes sense to assume that oxytocin has an anabolic effect, since oxytocin concentrations increase during challenging situations, including pregnancy and lactation in mammals, and triggers aggressive behaviour that, in females, is important for the protection of offspring after labour, when they are most vulnerable to predators and when plasma oxytocin concentration is at its peak. From a wider perspective, this demonstrates that the effects of oxytocin are beneficial in the management of osteoporosis, body fat gain, diabetes, sarcopenia and all age-related diseases affecting elderly people; in addition, it indicates the exciting therapeutic potential of oxytocin, but also the challenges in its clinical application, namely, finding a single route, dosage and schedule that is suitable for all patients. We hope that these problems will be solved by 2055, i.e., the 100th anniversary of oxytocin’s discovery. As such, we invite researchers who have made significant contributions to the field of oxytocin in recent years to contribute reviews or original research articles to this Special Issue.
Dr. Claudia Camerino
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- oxytocin
- thermoregulation
- skeletal muscle
- obesity
- Prader–Willi syndrome
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