title: Circadian rhythms of vasopressin release from individual rat suprachiasmatic explants in vitro.
abstract: A culture system was developed to study intrinsic oscillations within rat suprachiasmatic nuclei for long periods of time. After isolation in static organ cultures, individual rat suprachiasmatic explants released vasopressin in a circadian fashion for at least 4 cycles. This finding suggests that the suprachiasmatic nucleus contains one or more self-sustained circadian oscillators, and that this method of measuring circadian rhythms from individual suprachiasmatic organ cultures may prove to be a valuable model for elucidating the physiology and biochemistry of mammalian circadian pacemakers.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D003624:Darkness; D007700:Kinetics; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013493:Suprachiasmatic Nucleus / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D014667:Vasopressins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014667:Vasopressins