Absent effect of plasma vasopressin on rat brain blood flow during hemorrhage

We investigated whether a reflex increase in plasma vasopressin level due to hemorrhagic hypotension affects brain blood flow. In 60 lightly anesthetized, artificially ventilated rats, the flow was determined with radiolabeled microspheres. We found excellent maintenance of blood flow throughout all brain regions during the hypotensive state (71 mmHg on average), and such maintenance of flow was not modulated at all by a supramaximal intravenous dose of the selective vasopressin V1-receptor antagonist [d(CH2)5 Tyr-(Me)]AVP. The latter finding also implies that the V1 antagonist failed to unmask the vasodilator type actions of V2 receptors on the maintenance of flow during hemorrhagic hypotension. These were true also when the cervical sympathetic bundles were severed bilaterally. The plasma level of endogenous vasopressin was increased during hypotension, ranging from 118 to 973 pg/ml. Despite this increase, the brain blood flow was entirely independent of the plasma vasopressin level in all the brain regions studied. We conclude that the brain circulation of rats can maintain its blood flow during hemorrhagic hypotension without any apparent contribution from a concomitant reflex increase in plasma vasopressin. Despite our negative results for the brain blood flow, the possible segmental effects of circulating vasopressin on the brain arterial caliber remain to be clarified under conditions of hemorrhagic hypotension.