title: Fetal neurohypophyseal arginine vasopressin and arginine vasotocin in man and sheep.
abstract: Immunoreactive arginine vasopressin (AVP) and arginine vasotocin (AVT) were quantitated in 15 of 17 human fetal pituitary glands early in gestation (11-19 weeks) and in 8 of 9 ovine fetal pituitary glands late in gestation (109-137 days). In 14 of 15 human fetal glands, AVT content exceeded that of AVP. There was a significant rise of AVP (as a percentage of total AVP plus AVT content) with gestational age over the period of 12-19 weeks (P less than 00.01). The ovine fetal glands demonstrated a preponderance of AVP over AVT. The mean AVP and AVT content in the ovine glands was 5.7 +/- 2.9 and 0.8 +/- 0.2 mU/mg gland weight, respectively, compared with the values in the human fetal pitiutaries, 0.8 +/- 0.2 and 1.2 +/- 0.2 mU/mg gland weight, respectively. The relative percentage of AVP and AVT in the ovine fetal pituitaries was 76.0+/- 9.6% and 23.9 +/- 9.6%, respectively, as contrasted to the human fetal glands, 36.7 +/- 2.7% AVP and 63.3 +/- 2.7% AVT. The preponderance of AVT over AVP in the early gestational age mammalian fetus may represent a primative first step in molecular evolution of the neurohypophyseal peptides.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001127:Arginine Vasopressin / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000378:metabolism*; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D010904:Pituitary Gland, Posterior / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012756:Sheep; D014667:Vasopressins / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D014668:Vasotocin / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D014667:Vasopressins; D001127:Arginine Vasopressin; D014668:Vasotocin