Synthetic oxytocin as an antagonist of experimental cardiac anoxic changes in rabbits.

Synthetic oxytocin (Syntocinon) can be shown to reduce or abolish ST-T changes induced experimentally by hypoxaemia alone, by hypoxaemia and ergometrine, by vasopressin, and by a new procedure involving injection of small doses of picrotoxin into the lateral cerebral ventricle. Ventricular fibrillation induced by picrotoxin can also be reversed by oxytocin. These effects suggest a probable metabolic action of oxytocin against cardiac anoxic changes, and its possible therapeutic usefulness as an antagonist of myocardial ischaemia. It is speculated that this might be a physiological action of the hormone.