Relaxin-family peptide and receptor systems in brain: Insights from recent anatomical and functional studies

Abstract

Relaxin was for many years considered primarily a hormone active within the reproductive tract with overwhelming evidence for its important roles in mammalian parturition. More recent research, however, has clearly indicated additional physiological and/or therapeutic roles for relaxin in the cardiovascular, renal and respiratory systems (see other Chapters); while a few studies have also described possible physiological effects of relaxin in the central nervous system, perhaps unsurprisingly associated with the regulation of osmotic homeostasis, blood pressure and neurohormone secretion during pregnancy and parturition. Research on relaxin and subsequently discovered, related peptides has a..