BACKGROUND Vasodilatory shock is a potentially lethal complication of severe disease in critically ill patients. Currently, catecholamines are the most widely used vasopressor agents to support blood pressure, but loss of catecholamine pressor effects is a well-known clinical dilemma. Arginine vasopressin (AVP) has recently been shown to be a potent vasopressor agent to stabilize cardiocirculat...

Forearm vascular responses to arginine vasopressin (AVP) infused into a brachial artery in a wide range of infusion rates (0.05-2.0 ng/kg per min) were examined in 20 young healthy volunteers. Intraarterial AVP at lower doses (0.05 and 0.1 ng/kg per min) caused forearm vasoconstriction, whereas AVP at a dose of 0.2 ng/kg per min or higher caused forearm vasodilatation. The maximal forearm vasoc...

BACKGROUND Depressed hemodynamics stimulates arginine vasopressin (AVP) release, but the relationship between plasma AVP levels (P-AVP) and cardiac parameters, especially in patients with stage D heart failure (HF) receiving guideline-directed medical therapy, has not examined. METHODS AND RESULTS: Data including P-AVP were obtained from 162 in-hospital patients with stage D HF and from 80 pati...

Administration of thromboxane A2/prostaglandin H2(TxA2/PGH2)-receptor agonist U-46619 (2.86 nmol/kg iv) to conscious rats increased mean arterial pressure (MAP) by 17 ± 2 mmHg ( n = 6; P < 0.001) and plasma arginine vasopressin (AVP) by 3.5 ± 1.1 IU/ml ( n = 6; P < 0.001). Ifetroban (TxA2/PGH2antagonist; intracerebroventricularly) prevented both responses. Intracerebroventricular U-46619 increa...

We previously showed that arginine vasopressin (AVP) stimulates heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) induction through protein kinase C activation in aortic smooth muscle A10 cells. In the present study, we examined whether the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase superfamily is involved in the AVP-stimulated HSP27 induction in A10 cells. AVP stimulated the phosphorylation of p42/p44 MAP kinase and ...

Since the neurohypophyseal hormone 8-arginine vasopressin (AVP) is involved in cardiovascular tissue hypertrophy and myocyte differentiation, it is possible that local AVP plays a role in heart maturation. AVP-specific RIA, RT-PCR, and immunoblot measurement of AVP receptors (VR) were used to investigate heart tissues from newborn and adult rats. To test AVP's role in differentiation and specia...

We investigated the effect of the intravenous infusion of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) on the response of plasma arginine vasopressin (AVP) levels to intravenous infusion of angiotensin II (ANG II) in healthy individuals. Intravenous infusion of ANP (10 ng·kg(-1)·min(-1)) slightly but significantly decreased plasma AVP levels, while intravenous infusion of ANG II (10 ng·kg(-1)·min(-1)) resu...

Although acute decreases in plasma volume are known to enhance the osmotically induced arginine vasopressin (AVP) release, it is unclear whether there is also such interaction at the level of gene transcription. It also remains to be established how sustained changes in plasma volume affect the osmoregulation. In this study, we examined how acute and chronic decreases in blood volume affected t...

The role of arginine vasopressin (AVP) in blood pressure regulation in humans and animals is still controversial. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of AVP on blood pressure and the excretion of sodium and prostaglandin (PG) E2 in rabbits. AVP dissolved in 0.01 M acetic acid was infused subcutaneously at a rate of 0.86 ng/kg/min with a miniosmotic pump into 12 New Zealand...

Polydipsic mice, STR/N, which show extreme polydipsia and polyuria, were discovered in 1958. In the STR/N, urine outputs are much higher than in control mice. The possibility of an abnormal regulation of the arginine vasopressin (AVP) system, or an abnormality in the renal susceptibility to AVP, should be considered. In this study we investigated the AVP system and water regulation in STR/N. We...