Could oxytocin help regenerate heart muscle cells?

Oxytocin is a naturally occurring hormone produced in the hypothalamus region of the brain. This hormone is associated with the reproductive system of women, which includes childbirth and breastfeeding. Oxytocin is also called the love hormone. It arises from activities that make us feel happy, such as meditation, yoga, sexual intimacy, hugging and kissing, etc. Some research suggests that oxytocin may have a positive effect on heart health by lowering blood pressure.

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The research was conducted by Dr. Ettore Aguirre and his team, assistant professors in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Michigan State University, to confirm how the hormone oxytocin improves heart muscle. They tried to find out how oxytocin helps to stimulate stem cells made from the epicardium of the heart. These are called epicardium-derived progenitor cells, which develop into cardiomyocytes.

Dr. Aguirre explained that oxytocin reprograms new cells in the outer layers of the heart, called the epicardium, and later turns them into stem cells. These stem cells migrate to the deeper layers of the damaged heart, called the myocardium. Here these stem cells work to repair the damaged part of the heart by producing healing factors and converting the lost cells into blood vessels, cardiomyocytes, and fibroblasts.

According to another research, the effect of oxytocin lasts only for a short time. Nevertheless, this beneficial signaling pathway can be exploited to create drugs that have stronger and longer-lasting effects.

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Love hormone i.e. oxytocin hormone can help in improving the muscles of the human heart. This is because oxytocin comes into human circulation for a very short time, but by taking advantage of this such drugs can be made, which can maintain it for a long time. At the moment, more research remains to be done on this.

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