Effect of paraventricular nucleus lesions on drinking and pressor responses to ANG II.

Experiments were done to investigate the contribution of cells of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH) to the drinking and pressor responses elicited by microinjection of angiotensin II (ANG II) into the subfornical organ (SFO) in the awake unrestrained rat. Microinjection of ANG II (5 eta g in 0.2 microliter) elicited drinking (7.1 +/- 0.7 ml in 15 min, n = 18) and pressor (19 +/- 1 mmHg, n = 17) responses. Bilateral lesions of the PVH by the administration of kainic acid (KA; 0.2 microgram in 0.2 microliter of phosphate buffer) resulted in the abolition of the drinking response (before, 7.8 +/- 1.8 ml in 15 min; after, 0 ml in 15 min, n = 6) and significant (P less than 0.05) attenuation of the pressor response (before, 15 +/- 1 mmHg; after, 5 +/- 2 mmHg, n = 5). Administration of 0.2 microliter of the phosphate buffer vehicle bilaterally into the PVH and KA into regions adjacent to the PVH had no significant effect on the drinking or pressor responses. KA injections into the PVH resulted in the loss of 70-80% of parvocellular cells in the posterodorsal component of the PVH compared with animals with KA injections into adjacent non-PVH tissue (n = 7) or vehicle injection into the PVH (n = 5). These results suggest that parvocellular cells of the PVH are an important component of the neural circuitry that mediates the drinking and pressor response to ANG II acting at the SFO.