Vasopressin, or antidiuretic hormone, is a peptide hormone that is released from the posterior pituitary gland in response to changes in blood pressure and plasma osmolality. The main pathophysiological states associated with high plasma vasopressin concentrations are cirrhosis, cardiac failure and syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) secretion. Pharmacological treatments for ...

Noradrenergic projections to the hypothalamus play a critical role in the afferent control of oxytocin and vasopressin release. Recent evidence for intrahypothalamic glutamatergic circuits prompted us to test the hypothesis that the excitatory effect of noradrenergic inputs on oxytocin and vasopressin release is mediated in part by local glutamatergic interneurons. The voltage response to norep...

Hyponatremia is the most common electrolyte abnormality seen in clinical practice. Most cases of euvolemic or hypervolemic hyponatremia involve arginine vasopressin (AVP). AVP leads to a concentrated urine and negative free water clearance. Given this primary role of AVP, antagonizing its effect through blockade of its receptor in the distal tubule is an attractive therapeutic target. Lixivapta...

The genus Microtus includes several closely related species of voles with diverse patterns of social organization. Comparative studies of these species have previously tested hypotheses related to the evolution of monogamy and affiliation. In earlier studies, monogamous voles have been reported to differ from closely related nonmonogamous voles in the neural distribution of oxytocin and vasopre...

Social environments experienced at different developmental stages profoundly shape adult behavioural and neural phenotypes, and may have important interactive effects. We asked if social experience before and after weaning influenced adult social cognition in male prairie voles. Animals were raised either with or without fathers and then either housed singly or in sibling pairs. Males that were...

The synthetic nonapeptide 1‑desamino‑8‑D‑arginine vasopressin (dDAVP) can reduce tumor cell growth through agonist action on the vasopressin V2 receptor. A structure‑antiproliferative activity relationship analysis of dDAVP was performed using the alanine scanning technique on the aggressive MDA‑MB‑231 human breast carcinoma cell line. The results from this analysis demonstrated that the amino ...

Intracerebroventricular injection of senktide, a selective agonist for neurokinin B receptor (NK3), induced Fos expression in many neurons of the rat hypothalamus. Fos-positive neurons were predominantly present in the supraoptic and paraventricular hypothalamic nuclei, and some of them were seen in the lateral preoptic area, lateral hypothalamic area, arcuate nucleus, perifornical region, post...

The goal of this study was to examine humoral mechanisms that regulate blood flow to the choroid plexus. We determined the effects of arginine vasopressin on blood flow (microspheres) to the choroid plexus in anesthetized and awake rabbits. In anesthetized rabbits, blood flow to the choroid plexus was 342 +/- 31 (mean +/- SEM) ml/min/100 g under control conditions. Intravenous infusion of vasop...

This study assessed the contributions of the sympathetic nervous system and arginine vasopressin to the onset of one-kidney, one-wrap (1K1W) renal hypertension in rats fed a high sodium diet. Two weeks before renal wrap or sham wrap, rats were given a high sodium diet and water ad libitum. At 3 days postwrap, resting mean arterial pressure (MAP) was significantly greater in renal-wrapped rats. ...