oxytocin: a primer
[0]In years past, oxytocin had the reputation of being an "uncomplicated" hormone, with only a few well-defined activities related to birth and lactation: Stimulation of milk ejection, stimulation of uterine smooth muscle contraction at birth, establishment of maternal behavior... [1]
Oxytocin was first synthesized (along with the related antidiuretic hormone [ADH]) by Vincent du Vigneaud in 1953, and he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1955 for this work. Synthetic oxytocin has since become widely used in obstetric practice. [2]
Trust pervades human societies. Trust is indispensable in friendship, love, families and organizations, and plays a key role in economic exchange and politics... Much recent evidence indicates that trust contributes to economic, political and social success. Little is known, however, about the biological basis of trust among humans. Here we show that intranasal administration of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals, causes a substantial increase in trust among humans, thereby greatly increasing the benefits from social interactions... [3, abstract]
Substance administration. Subjects received a single intranasal dose of 24 IU oxytocin (Syntocinon-Spray, Novartis; 3 puffs per nostril, each with 4 IU oxytocin) or placebo 50 min before the start of the trust or the risk experiment. [3, methods]
Oxytocin is a 9 amino acid long peptide [Cys-Tyr-Ile-Gln-Asn-Cys-Pro-Leu-Gly]. It has a molecular mass of 1007 daltons... One IU (international Unit) is approximately 2 micrograms of pure peptide. [4]
Human Oxytocin (Pitocin)
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Our price: $ 50.00 /5 mg [5]
(5 mg) / (48 micrograms) = 104.166667 [6]
[0] http://www.oxytocin.org/oxytoc/
[1] http://arbl.cvmbs.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/hypopit/oxytocin.html
[2] http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/445_91.html
[3] http://www.iew.unizh.ch/home/kosfeld/papers/ottrust_nature.pdf
[4] http://classes.aces.uiuc.edu/AnSci308/milkejection.html
[5] http://www.prospec.co.il/~prospec/cart/customer/search.php?substring=pitocin
[6] http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%285mg+%2F+48micrograms%29