Expression of vasopressin receptors in hamster hypothalamus is sexually dimorphic and dependent upon photoperiod.

The distribution of vasopressin receptors was studied in the brain of a photoperiodic animal, the Siberian hamster. Attention was focused on [3H]vasopressin binding sites located in the hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus, medial tuberal nucleus, and ventral premammillary nucleus in males or females kept in long or short photoperiod conditions. Displacement experiments with structural analogs suggested that vasopressin receptors in the hamster hypothalamus are of the vasopressor (V1) type. Quantitative data obtained with a gaseous detector of beta-particles indicated that in the ventromedial nucleus and in the ventral premammillary nucleus of animals in long photoperiod, the number of beta-particles emitted per unit area was significantly greater in males than in females. In the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus, in both males and females, the number of beta-particles emitted was significantly lower in short than in long photoperiod conditions. In the ventral premammillary nucleus, shortening of the photoperiod had a significant effect in reducing the amount of [3H]vasopressin bound in females, but not in males. These data suggest that, in the hamster, the control of the expression of vasopressin receptors differs among various hypothalamic nuclei and may depend on the sex and/or on the level of circulating gonadal steroids.