title: Anterior pituitary cells from Brattleboro (di/di), Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley rats contain immunoreactive arginine vasopressin.
abstract: A radioimmunoassay specific for arginine-vasopressin (AVP) was used to establish the presence of immunoreactive (ir)-AVP in extracts of anterior pituitary glands from Sprague-Dawley (SD) and Long-Evans (LE) rats (3.05 +/- 1.0 and 1.66 +/- 0.9 ng/gland, respectively). Lower levels of ir-AVP (0.56 +/- 0.26 ng/gland) were detected in anterior pituitary gland extracts from rats with hereditary diabetes insipidus (Brattleboro; di/di). The anterior pituitary gland ir-AVP from each rat strain was further characterized by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). In each case the major peak of immunoreactivity co-migrated with synthetic AVP. By peroxidase-antiperoxidase immunocytochemistry, sparsely distributed cells containing ir-AVP were localized in anterior pituitary sections. Levels of ir-AVP in primary cultures of anterior pituitary cells (from SD rats) increased from 52 +/- 5 pg/10(6) cells at 2 days in vitro to 152 +/- 17 pg/10(6) cells at 3 days; during this period 56 +/- 6 pg/ml ir-AVP was secreted into the culture medium. Fewer than 1% of the cells in these cultures were immunostainable for AVP. These data indicate that the anterior pituitary gland of the Brattleboro, Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley rat contains ir-AVP, and that there is synthesis and secretion of this peptide in primary cultures of anterior pituitary cells in vitro.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001127:Arginine Vasopressin / Q000032:analysis*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D010903:Pituitary Gland, Anterior / Q000166:cytology*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D051381:Rats; D011910:Rats, Brattleboro; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D001127:Arginine Vasopressin