Anatomy: Oxytocin

Anatomy Report OXYTOCIN Name Yeqin Yan Period premier period Oxytocin Oxytocin from the Greek oxy, meaning quick, and tokos, meaning vaginal birth. History Oxytocin was discovered in 1909 when Sir Henry H. Dale found that an rend from the human posterior pituitary gland gland contracted the uterus of a pregnant cat.Definition a hypothalamic hormone stored in the posterior pituitary, which has uterine-contracting and milk-releasing actions it may also be prepared synthetically or obtained from the posterior pituitary of domestic animals used to induce active labor, increase the force of contractions in labor, contract uterine muscle after delivery of the placenta, control postnatal hemorrhage, and stimulate milk ejection. Peripheral (hormonal) actions 1. Letdown reflex 2. Uterine contraction 3. mixer behavior and wound healing 4.Modulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity 5. Autism 6. Increasing authority and reducing fear 7. Affecting generosity by increasing em pathy during sight taking 8. Affecting Cognitive function Actions within the brain 1. a Function 1. Stimulates contractions of the smooth muscle tissue in the wall of the uterus during childbirth. 2. Oxytocin stimulates uterine contraction. 3. Contract the vagina during orgasm. Synthesis In the hypothalamus, oxytocin is make in magnocellular neurosecretory cells of the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei. StorageIt is stored in Herring bodies at the axon terminals in the posterior pituitary. Release It is then released into the blood from the posterior lobe (neurohypophysis) of the pituitary gland. Where substructure we find it Outside the brain, oxytocin-containing cells have been identified in several different tissues, including the corpus luteum, the interstitial cells of Leydig, the retina, the adrenal medulla, the placenta, the thymus and the pancreas. Drug forms Synthetic oxytocin is sold as proprietary medication under the trade names Pitocin and Syntocinon, and as gen eric oxytocin.