title: Evidence of age-related variation in plasma vasopressin of normotensive men.
abstract: The influence of age on plasma arginine vasopressin was examined in three groups of healthy men, 25 +/- 1 (n = 12), 40 (n = 23) and 50 years of age (n = 13), respectively. The three groups were comparable in body height, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, serum and urine osmolality, electrolytes and endogenous creatinine clearance. Compared to the 25-year olds, the 50-year old men had more than three times higher basal plasma vasopressin (7.8 +/- 1.4 vs. 2.5 +/- 0.6 ng/l, p less than 0.01), only one-third the plasma renin concentration (0.36 +/- 0.05 vs. 1.10 +/- 0.33 G.U. X 10(-4)/ml, p less than 0.01) and a significantly higher plasma noradrenaline (267 +/- 21 vs. 199 +/- 19 ng/l, p less than 0.05) while plasma adrenaline remained essentially unchanged. The 40-year olds had intermediate plasma vasopressin concentrations (4.2 +/- 0.6 ng/l). Thus, age is a variable with a substantial effect on plasma concentrations of vasopressin in addition to the well-known effect on renin and noradrenaline. Age must be taken into account in further clinical studies on vasopressin.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001127:Arginine Vasopressin / Q000097:blood*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000097:blood; D012016:Reference Values; D012083:Renin / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D001127:Arginine Vasopressin; D012083:Renin; D009638:Norepinephrine