Effect of hypophysectomy on dipsogenic stimuli: evidence for angiotensin supersensitivity

The effects of long-term hypophysectomy on renin secretion and the renin and drinking responses to isoproterenol were investigated in male rats. Drinking responses to angiotensin II, hypertonic saline, and water deprivation for 24 h were also measured. Plasma renin activity and plasma angiotensin II were variably lower in rats that had been hypophysectomized for 21 days than in intact controls. Angiotensinogen was also reduced, but plasma renin concentration was not. Isoproterenol produced a smaller increase in plasma renin activity in hypophysectomized rats than it did in controls, but with the one dose of isoproterenol that was tested, the increase in plasma renin concentration was comparable in the two groups. However, the drinking responses to isoproterenol were greater in the hypophysectomized rats. The drinking responses produced by infusion of angiotensin II were also greater, but the responses to infusion of hypertonic saline and to 24 h of water deprivation were not. The data suggest that in rats hypophysectomized for 21 days the circumventricular organs that mediate thirst are hyperresponsive to circulating angiotensin II, possibly because the relatively low circulating angiotensin II levels permit the upregulation of angiotensin II receptors in these structures.