The past two decades have produced many new insights into the cellular mechanisms that regulate the firing patterns of hormone-secreting magnocellular neurons in the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus. These firing patterns determine how much vasopressin or oxytocin is released into the systemic circulation. One such insight is the realization that these peptides are rele...

The methods employed previously in this laboratory for the isolation of oxytocin and vasopressin depend upon the use of several procedures to arrive at a highly purified sample. From the acetone powder of the posterior pituitary gland, the extraction and fractionation method of Kamm and coworkers (1) leads to a fraction rich in oxytocin and one rich in vasopressin, each at a stage of intermedia...

Our previous finding that dexamethasone-induced hypertension in rats is associated with enhanced reactivity of mesenteric arteries to arginine vasopressin but not to angiotensin II (Ang II) or norepinephrine has led us to postulate that vasopressin contributes to the development or maintenance of glucocorticoid-induced hypertension. To test this view, we investigated the effects of vasopressin,...

Vasopressin and oxytocin are synthesised in the hypothalamus and released to the blood stream via the posterior lobe of the hypophysis. Research during later years has shown that these peptides are also produced in other parts of the brain. The secretion to plasma is stimulated by oestrogen, an effect which is counteracted by progestagen. During delivery the fetus can also produce substantial a...

BACKGROUND It is unknown whether repeated dosages of vasopressin or epinephrine given early or late during basic life support cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may be able to increase coronary perfusion pressure above a threshold between 20 and 30 mm Hg that renders defibrillation successful. METHODS AND RESULTS After 4 minutes of cardiac arrest, followed by 3 minutes of basic life support ...

Bolger SJ, Gonzales Hurtado PA, Hoffert JD, Saeed F, Pisitkun T, Knepper MA. Quantitative phosphoproteomics in nuclei of vasopressin-sensitive renal collecting duct cells. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 303: C1006 –C1020, 2012. First published September 19, 2012; doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00260.2012.—Vasopressin regulates transport across the collecting duct epithelium in part via effects on gene transcri...

Previous work from this laboratory (1, 2) has demonstrated that the vasopressin from beef posterior pituitary lobes, after partial purification by the procedure of Kamm et al. (3), can be obtained in a high degree of purity by means of countercurrent distribution with the system 0.09 M p-toluenesulfonic acid-n-butyl alcohol. Although no detectable difference was observed in the physical propert...

RATIONALE Changes in plasma cytokine levels may predict mortality, and therapies (vasopressin versus norepinephrine) could change plasma cytokine levels in early septic shock. OBJECTIVES Our hypotheses were that changes in plasma cytokine levels over 24 hours differ between survivors and nonsurvivors, and that there are different effects of vasopressin and norepinephrine on plasma cytokine le...

Vasopressin is a potent endogenous vasoconstrictor that increases blood pressure and systemic vascular resistance. The administration of exogenous vasopressin during closed and open cardiopulmonary resuscitation in humans was shown to be more effective than optimal doses of epinephrine in several clinical studies. We summarize here the recent experimental and clinical data on the use of vasopre...