Oxytocin, sometimes called the “love hormone,” may help heal broken hearts — literally. In a new study of zebrafish and human cells, scientists found that the brain-made hormone may help heart tissue regenerate after injury and, in theory, could someday be used in the treatment of heart attacks, according to the researchers.
Because the new study was conducted in fish tanks and lab dishes, however, this theoretical treatment is still far from realization.
Oxytocin has been nicknamed the “love” or “cuddle” hormone for its known role in forging social bonds and trust between people, and its levels often rise when people cuddle, have sex or orgasm. However, the so-called love hormone also serves many other functions in the body, such as triggering contractions during childbirth and promoting lactation afterward. Oxytocin also helps guard the cardiovascular system from injury by lowering blood pressure, reducing inflammation and diffusing free radicals, a reactive byproduct of normal cell metabolism, according to a 2020 review in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (opens in new tab).
The new study, published Friday (Sept. 30) in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (opens in new tab), highlights yet another potential benefit of oxytocin: At least in zebrafish, the hormone helps the heart replace injured and dead cardiomyocytes, the muscle cells that power heart contractions. Early results in human cells hint that oxytocin could stimulate similar effects in people, if delivered with the right timing and dose.
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The heart has a very limited ability to repair or replace damaged or dead tissue, the study authors noted in their report. But several studies suggest that after an injury, like a heart attack, a subset of cells in the heart’s outermost membrane, called the epicardium, don a new identity. These cells migrate down into the layer of heart tissue where muscles reside and transform into stem-like cells, which can then turn into several heart cells types, including cardiomyocytes.
This process has largely been studied in animals and there’s some evidence to suggest that it may also occur in adult humans. Unfortunately, if the process does occur in people, it seems to unfold too inefficiently and in too few cells to result in meaningful tissue regeneration after a heart attack, the study authors said in a statement (opens in new tab). By somehow encouraging more epicardial…
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