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The cerebrospinal fluid level of arginine vasopressin (AVP) or vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) was enhanced chronically by implantation of a device for controlled drug delivery in the lateral ventricle of the rat. Urine production, water consumption, urine osmolality as well as urinary AVP excretion were then measured for a period of 26 days. During this period the rats were studied under normal hydration and under conditions of osmotic stress induced by water deprivation (2 days) and the drinking of 2% (w/v) NaCl (6 days), in order to see whether the capacity of central systems to react adequately to osmotic stimuli was affected by high central peptide levels.

Immediately after the central AVP treatment was started, a temporary increase was found in urinary AVP levels which was not accompanied by a change in any of the other parameters but which decreased again to control levels within 10 days. After this burst of AVP excretion, AVP-treated rats showed a tendency during periods of normal hydration for a lower urine osmolality, combined with a higher water intake and urine production without changes in urinary AVP excretion. Since there was no clear-cut correlation between urinary AVP excretion and body water turnover, this could still indicate a slowly acquired and slight inhibition of pituitary AVP release by long-term centrally administered AVP. However, the capacity of these rats to respond to osmotic stimuli was not different from the controls.

In the VIP-treated rats a slight but significant reduction in urine production was found in all three periods of normal hydration. During the osmotic stress induced by the drinking of 2% NaCl the VIP-treated rats showed a lower increase in urine production and fluid intake and a lower decrease in urine osmolality when compared with the response of the control rats. This has tentatively been interpreted as a potentiation by VIP of the activation of pituitary AVP release under these conditions.

J. Endocr. (1988) 117, 207–214