Vitamin A (and ATRA) Upregulate Oxytocin via CD38
A familiar site to Maja, the confluence of the Sava and the Danube Today’s post is to document an interesting discovery by Maja, one reader of this blog. She is just ahead of some Korean researchers, who very recently published a paper in Experimental Neurobiology on the same subject. Maja noticed that giving a small dose of fish oil produced the same benefits as those often claimed for Oxytocin ; she then did some investigation and noted that an enzyme called CD38 upregulates oxytocin in the brain. The level of CD38 is affected by inflammatory cytokines and certain vitamins. In particular, all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) increases CD38 . All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is made in the body from vitamin A. ATRA is also called vitamin A acid. Maja suggested this paper:- All-trans Retinoic Acid Upregulates Reduced CD38 Transcription in Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines from Autism Spectrum Disorder Deficits in social behavior in mice lacking the CD38 gene have...