Oxytocin and bone.

ABSTRACT: One of the most meaningful results recently achieved in bone research has been to reveal that the pituitary hormones have profound effect on bone, so that the pituitary-bone axis has become one of the major topics in skeletal physiology. Here, we discuss the relevant evidence about the posterior pituitary hormone oxytocin (OT), previously thought to exclusively regulate parturition and breastfeeding, which has recently been established to directly regulate bone mass. Both osteoblasts and osteoclasts express OT receptors (OTR), whose stimulation enhances bone mass. Consistent with this, mice deficient in OT or OTR display profoundly impaired bone formation. In contrast, bone resorption remains unaffected in OT deficiency because, even while OT stimulates the genesis of osteoclasts, it inhib

SUBMITTER: Colaianni G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4200383 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature