Increased motor disturbances in response to arginine vasopressin following hemorrhage or hypertonic saline: evidence for central AVP release in rats.

The effects of hemorrhage and parenteral hypertonic saline on the behavioural responses to centrally-administered arginine vasopressin (AVP) were examined in rats. Both hemorrhage and hypertonic saline act as potent stimuli for neurohypophysial vasopressin release, and may serve as potential stimuli for cerebral AVP release. When administered into a lateral cerebral ventricle of the rat brain, AVP has a potent convulsant action; this effect increases in severity upon subsequent administration. Removal of 15% of the estimated blood volume from the conscious rat or infusion of 1.0 ml of 1.5 M sodium chloride solution into the peritoneal cavity can mimic the effect of a central injection of AVP in 'sensitizing' the brain to the behavioural effects of subsequent injections of AVP. This suggests that these stimuli which are known to activate posterior pituitary secretion of AVP also induce the release of AVP (or a closely related molecule), from neuronal fibres within the brain.