Oxytocin and Milk Ejection — NEET Biology
✅ Asked in NEET 2023MSH acts on the melanocytes (melanin containing cells) and regulates pigmentation of the skin. Oxytocin acts on the smooth muscles of our body and stimulates their contraction. In females, it stimulates a vigorous contraction of uterus at the time of child birth, and milk ejection from the mammary gland. Vasopressin acts mainly at the kidney and stimulates resorption of water and electrolytes by the distal tubules and thereby reduces loss of water through urine (diuresis). Hence, it is also called as anti-diuretic hormone (ADH).
NTA repeatedly tests oxytocin's dual role: stimulating uterine contractions during labor AND milk ejection from mammary glands in females. Students often confuse oxytocin with prolactin—prolactin produces milk, but oxytocin ejects it. Another trap: thinking oxytocin only works during childbirth, ignoring its role in lactation. The key distinction is that oxytocin acts on smooth muscles to cause contraction, while prolactin acts on mammary tissue to produce milk. For NEET: remember oxytocin = contraction/ejection; prolactin = production. This hormone pair appears frequently because it tests understanding of multiple endocrine functions in female reproduction.
This paragraph was tested 3 times in NEET.
Hormone responsible for the milk ejection reflex is: (NEET 2023)
Which one of the following hormone pairs is not antagonistic (opposing) in action? (NEET 2022)
Which hormone regulates reabsorption of water in kidney tubules? (NEET 2021)
Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 88 of 90 questions from the NEET 2026 paper were matched straight from the MedicNEET Biology question bank.
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