Oxytocin, commonly known as the 'love hormone,' has anti-ageing power, a study by the University of Berkeley suggests.
Study conducted on mice showed the researchers that oxytocin is vital for healthy muscle maintenance and repair. Researchers said that the results present oxytocin as the latest treatment for age-related muscle wasting, or sarcopenia.
The team explained that oxytocin is the first known anti-ageing molecule approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for clinical use in humans. Previously, few other biochemical factors in blood have been linked to ageing and disease.
"Unfortunately, most of the molecules discovered so far to boost tissue regeneration are also associated with cancer, limiting their potential as treatments for humans," lead study researcher investigator Irina Conboy said in a press release.
"Our quest is to find a molecule that not only rejuvenates old muscle and other tissue, but that can do so sustainably long-term without increasing the risk of cancer," said Conboy, an associate professor of bioengineering.
The research team explained that oxytocin, secreted into the blood by the brain's pituitary gland, is a good contender given the fact that it is a broad range hormone that reaches every organ. Moreover, it is not known to be associated with tumors or to interfere with the immune system.
Even though oxytocin is found in both young boys and girls, it is not yet known when levels of the hormone begin to decline in humans, and what levels are important for maintaining healthy tissues.
After the research, the team found that blood levels of oxytocin declined with age in mice. And there are fewer receptors for oxytocin in muscle stem cells in old versus young mice.
In order to understand the association between oxytocin and muscle repair, researchers injected the hormone under the skin of old mice for four days, and then for five days more after the muscles were injured.
After the nine-day treatment, they found that the muscles of the mice that had received oxytocin injections healed far better than those of a control group of mice without oxytocin. "The action of oxytocin was fast. The repair of muscle in the old mice was at about 80 per cent of what we saw in the young mice," said Christian Elabd, senior scientist in Conboy's lab, and co-lead author on the study.
However, the researchers noted that oxytocin administered to the younger mice did not seem to cause a major change in muscle regeneration. They also found that blocking the effects of oxytocin in young mice quickly compromised their ability to repair muscle, which resembled old tissue after an injury.
The study was published in the journal 'Nature Communications'.
