Abstract
We studied the involvement of periventricular and hypothalamic angiotensinergic and cholinergic pathways in osmotically induced arginine vasopressin (AVP) release into the blood. In conscious Wistar rats, i.c.v. injections of 0.2, 0.3 and 0.6 M hyperosmolar saline (5 μl) resulted in concentration-dependent increases in AVP release (5.2 ± 1.5, 10.6 ± 2.2 and 18.0 ± 2.2 pg/ml, respectively, vs. 2.0 ± 0.1 in controls). The two lower saline concentrations did not affect arterial blood pressure (non-pressure-associated AVP release), whereas 0.6 M saline induced increase in blood pressure (pressure-associated AVP release). In the first set of experiments, periventricular angiotensin AT1, muscarinic or nicotinic receptors were blocked by i.c.v. administration of losartan (10 nmol), atropine (100 nmol) or hexamethonium (100 nmol), respectively, before i.c.v. hyperosmolar saline injections. Losartan significantly reduced the 0.2 M and 0.3 M, but not the 0.6 M, saline-induced increase in AVP release. The 0.3 M saline-induced AVP release was blocked by atropine and hexamethonium, whereas the 0.6 M saline-induced AVP release was blocked by atropine only. In the second set of experiments, losartan (4 nmol), atropine (200 nmol) or hexamethonium (200 nmol) was injected bilaterally into the paraventricular nucleus before i.c.v. hyperosmolar saline injections. Losartan reduced 0.3 M and potentiated 0.6 M saline-induced AVP release. On the other hand, atropine and hexamethonium significantly reduced both 0.3 and 0.6 M saline-induced AVP release. We conclude that afferents arising from periventricular osmosensitive neurons to the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, which are involved in non-pressure-associated osmotically induced AVP release, are both angiotensinergic and cholinergic, whereas those mediating pressure-associated AVP release are cholinergic in nature.
Footnotes
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Send reprint requests to: Fatimunnisa Qadri, Ph.D., Institute of Pharmacology, Medical University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, D-23538 Lübeck, Germany.
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↵1 This work was supported by a grant-in-aid from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Un 47/2-3 and Zi 10/22-1. F. Qadri was a recipient of a doctorate scholarship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – Graduiertenkolleg “Experimentelle Nierenund Kreislaufforschung.”
- Abbreviations:
- AVP
- arginine vasopressin
- PVN
- paraventricular nucleus
- SON
- supraoptic nucleus
- CVO
- circumventricular organs. BP, blood pressure
- ANG II
- angiotensin II
- SFO
- subfornical organ
- OVLT
- organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis
- NA
- nonadrenaline
- Received August 4, 1997.
- Accepted February 2, 1998.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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