Most G-protein-coupled receptors have conserved cysteine residues in their C-terminal cytoplasmic domain that appear to be generally palmitoylated. An example is the human arginine vasopressin V2 receptor with cysteine residues at positions 341 and 342. Site-directed mutagenesis of the putative palmitoylation site was used to study the significance of palmitoylation for the V2 receptor. A multi...

We have recently reported that endothelin-1 (ET-1), which is increased in the arteries of deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt hypertensive rats, stimulates superoxide production. However, the humoral mechanisms responsible for ET-1-induced superoxide formation in low-renin models of hypertension, such as DOCA-salt hypertension, remain undefined. Vasopressin is known to upregulate vascular p...

To investigate the possible role of arginine vasopressin in maintaining high blood pressure of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), the effect of two arginine vasopressin pressor antagonists on mean arterial pressure and the pressor responsiveness to exogenous arginine vasopressin were studied in conscious, freely moving SHR and in Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). Intravenous injections of either d(C...

Plasma vasopressin sensitizes the baroreceptor reflex, whereas vasopressin given into the cerebral ventricle overrides the baroreceptor reflex by means of sympathetic stimulation. To test the hypothesis that arginine vasopressin stimulates two different receptor subtypes (V1 and V2) in the central nervous system, we measured the baroreceptor reflex (change in pulse interval vs change in blood p...

In the renal collecting duct, vasopressin increases osmotic water permeability (P(f)) by triggering trafficking of aquaporin-2 vesicles to the apical plasma membrane. We investigated the role of vasopressin-induced intracellular Ca(2+) mobilization in this process. In isolated inner medullary collecting ducts (IMCDs), vasopressin (0.1 nm) and 8-(4-chlorophenylthio)-cAMP (0.1 mm) elicited marked...

The (pro)renin receptor is a newly discovered member of the brain renin-angiotensin system. To investigate the role of brain (pro)renin receptor in hypertension, adeno-associated virus-mediated (pro)renin receptor short hairpin RNA was used to knockdown (pro)renin receptor expression in the brain of nontransgenic normotensive and human renin-angiotensinogen double-transgenic hypertensive mice. ...

Romantic and maternal love are highly rewarding experiences. Both are linked to the perpetuation of the species and therefore have a closely linked biological function of crucial evolutionary importance. Yet almost nothing is known about their neural correlates in the human. We therefore used fMRI to measure brain activity in mothers while they viewed pictures of their own and of acquainted chi...

Romantic and maternal love are highly rewarding experiences. Both are linked to the perpetuation of the species and therefore have a closely linked biological function of crucial evolutionary importance. The newly developed ability to study the neural correlates of subjective mental states with brain imaging techniques has allowed neurobiologists to learn something about the neural bases of bot...

Streptomyces silvensis produces nonribosomal peptides that act as antagonists of the human oxytocin and vasopressin receptors. Here, we present the genome sequence of S. silvensis ATCC 53525 and demonstrate that this organism possesses a number of additional biosynthetic gene clusters and might be a promising source for genome-guided drug discovery efforts.

Vasopressin and vasopressin antagonists are finding expanded use in mouse models of disease and in clinical medicine. To provide further insight into the physiological role of V1a and V2 vasopressin receptors in the human and mouse kidney, intrarenal localization of the receptors mRNA was determined by in situ hybridization. V2-receptor mRNA was predominantly expressed in the medulla, whereas m...