Oct 05, 2022 16:23:00

It is shown that the happy hormone `` oxytocin '' may recover the heart damaged by a heart attack

Oxytocin , known as the 'happiness hormone,' may help rebuild damaged heart tissue. The results indicated that oxytocin could be used to treat heart attacks.

Frontiers | Oxytocin promotes epicardial cell activation and heart regeneration after cardiac injury
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2022.985298

'Love hormone' oxytocin may help mend broken hearts (literally), lab study suggests | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/oxytocin-heart-regeneration

Research has shown that oxytocin is secreted by physical contact with others and reaching orgasm, and has the effect of changing communication with others into pleasure .

Research conducted by researchers at Michigan State University shows that oxytocin helps protect the cardiovascular system from damage by lowering blood pressure, reducing inflammation, and diffusing free radicals , which are reactive byproducts of normal cell metabolism. I just found out that it helps.

The heart has a limited ability to repair or replace damaged or necrotic tissue, with the exception of a group of tissue called the epicardium, which migrates to the layers of heart tissue where muscle resides. However, they can change into stem cell-like cells and some heart cells such as cardiomyocytes. Although this process is primarily seen in non-human animals, some studies suggest that it may occur in humans as well. However, even if it actually occurs, it has been pointed out that it is too inefficient for tissue regeneration.

A research team at Michigan State University speculated that by increasing the number of epicardial cells that change into cardiomyocytes in some way, it may be possible to help the heart self-regenerate, and conducted research. Therefore, when the research team conducted an experiment in which 15 types of various brain hormones act on human cells, it was found that only oxytocin accelerates the above process.

Next, they observed

zebrafish , which have the ability to regenerate body tissues such as brain, bone, and heart. It seems that the amount of secretion was found to swell up to 20 times before the injury. In addition, oxytocin reaches the heart and begins the process of transforming epicardial cells into cardiomyocytes, as seen in the human cells mentioned above.

These experiments suggested that oxytocin played an important role in heart repair after injury, the researchers wrote. The research team said that by increasing the effect of oxytocin, it may be possible to develop new treatments that repair hearts damaged by heart attacks and reduce the risk of heart failure.