Effect of adrenalectomy and administration of hypertonic saline on the content of aldehyde fuchsin-positive neurosecretory material and posterior lobe hormones in the median eminence and the neural lobe of rats.

The influence of adrenalectomy and administration of hypertonic saline on the amount of vasopressin, oxytocin, and neurophysin contained in the median eminence and the neural lobe of rats was studied by means of the following methods: (i) morphometric and microphotometric analyses of aldehyde fuchsin-stained histological sections of the neurohypophysis; (ii) immunohistochemical demonstration of vasopressin, oxytocin, and neurophysin in the neurohypophysis, and (iii) radioimmunological measurement of vasopressin and oxytocin in extracts of the median eminence and the neural lobe. Adrenalectomy increases the amount of vasopressin and neurophysin in the external layer of the median eminence but does not change the content of oxytocin. It has no influence on the amount of vasopressin, oxytocin, and neurophysin demonstrable in the inner layer of the median eminence and in the neural lobe two weeks after the operation. Hypertonic saline markedly diminishes the vasopressin, oxytocin, and neurophysin content of the inner layer of the median eminence and the neural lobe but reduces only slightly, if at all, the amount of vasopressin and neurophysin in the outer layer of the median eminence. The findings support the concept that osmotic stress reduces only the vasopressin and oxytocin content of the hypothalamus-neural lobe system and has no or only little influence on the vasopressin content of the outer layer of the median eminence.