title: Influence of age on August levels of pineal immunoreactive arginine vasotocin in rats.
abstract: The present study was undertaken to evaluate carefully the influence of age on physiological levels of arginine vasotocin-like peptide in rat pineal glands. Glands were collected from male and female rats aged 13, 33, 53, and 73 days on August 4, 12, and 19, 1984. Individual extracts were assayed for arginine vasotocin (AVT) by radioimmunoassay. The results confirm our previous observation that rat pineal AVT immunoactivity (iAVT) increases significantly during August each year; and in this study, each group of rats reached the same peak level of iAVT (700-750 pg/gland) regardless of age or gender. Thus we do not confirm a previously reported decrease in AVT activity with age. In our studies thus far, season of the year is the physiological variable with the most significant influence on pineal AVT activity levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood 60153.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Prechel
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Audhya
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Simmons
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000097:blood*; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D010870:Pineal Gland / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D012621:Seasons; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014668:Vasotocin / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014668:Vasotocin