Rehovot, Israel. The hormone oxytocin helps to direct development of the neurohypophysis, an interface between nerve fibers and blood vessels located at the base of the brain in which biochemical commands are passed from the brain cells to the bloodstream and from there to the body.

Since the neurohypophysis is one of only a few portions of the brain able to regenerate after injury, understanding how it is formed may one day help achieve such regeneration in other parts of the central nervous system.


Much of the body's chemistry is controlled by the brain — from blood pressure to appetite to food metabolism. Some major brain-body interactions take place at the neurohypophysis interface, including hormonal regulation of vital body processes, such as maintaining fluid balances and uterine contractions in childbirth.


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Hypothalamo Neurohypophyseal System (HNS)

The HNS is the neurovascular structure through which the hypothalamic neuropeptides oxytocin and arginine-vasopressin exit the brain into the bloodstream, where they go on to affect peripheral physiology.

Image courtesy of the Weizmann Institute of Science.The neurohypophysis has been studied for more than a century, but the exact cellular and molecular processes leading to its formation have been elusive. Now, tools developed at the Weizmann Institute enable examination of the three-dimensional arrangement of this brain structure. A team of scientists led by Dr. Gil Levkowitz of the Weizmann Institute has published their findings in the journal Developmental Cell.

Since the human neurohypophysis is exceedingly complex, the scientists performed the research on live embryos of zebrafish. These fully transparent embryos offer a unique model for studying the vertebrate brain, lending themselves to genetic manipulation with relative ease and enabling researchers to observe the actual formation of a neurohypophysis under a microscope.



Three-dimensional structure of the neurohypophysis in a zebrafish embryo (the nerve fibers and blood vessels are genetically tagged with fluorescent proteins). This brain area provides an interface between nerve cells (green), arteries (purple) and veins (red).

Image courtesy of the Weizmann Institute of Science.The hormonal messenger oxytocin has previously been shown to control appetite, such female reproductive behaviors as breastfeeding, along with mother-child and mate bonding. The new study showed that oxytocin, one of the two major hormones secreted in the adult neurohypophysis, is involved in the development of this brain area already in the embryo.

At this stage, the oxytocin governs the formation of new blood vessels. "The messenger helps to build the road for transmitting its own future messages," says Levkowitz.

These findings provide an important advance in basic research because they shed light on fundamental brain processes, but in the future they might also be relevant to the treatment of disease.

Since the neurohypophysis is one of only a few portions of the brain able to regenerate after injury, an understanding of how it is formed may one day help achieve such regeneration in other parts of the central nervous system.

These new findings provide an important advance in basic research because they shed light on fundamental brain processes, but in the future they might also be relevant to the treatment of disease.

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