Oxytocin and the Life-span of Male Rats

Abstract

Friedman and Friedman¹ recently reported that chronic administration of a crude extract of the posterior pituitary gland extended the life-span of old male rats. They postulated that this effect resulted from changes caused by vasopressin in the metabolism of water and salts. Vasopressin alone, however, failed to produce prolongation of life in the aforementioned experiments. More recently, they have extended their investigations to the effect of aldosterone.