Oxytocin, hormone involved in lactation, parturition and social bonding, also enables old mice’ muscles to rejuvenate.
Oxytocin, hormone involved in lactation, parturition and social bonding, also enables old muscles to rejuvenate.
Systemic injection of hormone oxytocin into old mice stimulated muscle regeneration. After an injury the muscles in these animals had similar regeneration levels to muscles in young mice. The hormone improves repair by activating a signalling pathway in muscle stem cells — thereby boosting the cells’ proliferation. Moreover, mice engineered to lack oxytocin did not demonstrated defective muscle development but showed decreased muscle repair and greater loss of muscle tissue compared with normal mice of the same age.
Oxytocin could be used as a drug to prevent or slow down muscle ageing, the authors say.