Arginine-vasopressin influences the mitogen-induced development of T and B effector cells.

Using a solid phase enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) for enumerating antibody and interleukin secreting cells it could be demonstrated that arginine-vasopressin (AVP) inhibits the activation process of in vitro cultivated murine spleen lymphocytes. Lipopolysaccharide stimulated B cells could be influenced by high AVP concentrations (10[-5] M), while ConA induced Th1 cells respond also to a lower AVP level (10[-8] M) and such response by the IL-4 secreting Th2 cells may be demonstrated only after the activation with suboptimal doses of Con A. These observations suggest that AVP is not only able to suppress immunological reactions by stimulating proopiomelanocortin processing and secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone, but also by a direct binding to lymphocytes and, moreover, that the susceptibility in monitoring this signal among the murine lymphocyte subpopulations is different.