The effects of central norepinephrine infusions on drinking behavior induced by angiotensin after 6-hydroxydopamine injections into the anteroventral region of the third ventricle (AV3V).

Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with either 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) or vehicle in the median preoptic nucleus and the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis. The subjects were tested for drinking responses to intraventricular angiotensin II (ANG II) or saline during either saline or norepinephrine intraventricular infusions. Rats injected with 6-OHDA into the ventral lamina terminalis initially failed to show drinking responses to ANG II injections. However, norepinephrine infusion in combination with ANG II injection restored the drinking response to ANG II in rats with catecholamine depletions of the lamina terminalis region.