Changes with aging in the vasopressin and oxytocin innervation of the rat brain

The effect of aging on the vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OXT) innervation of the brain was studied by means of immunocytochemistry, comparing the major innervated areas in 5-month-old and 34-month-old male Brown-Norway rats. A marked decrease of AVP fiber density was found in the old rats as compared with the young animals in the vertical limb of the diagonal band, the basal nucleus of Meynert, the lateral habenular nucleus, the medial amygdaloid nucleus, the substantia nigra, the ventral hippocampus, the central gray, the locus coeruleus and in the ambiguus nucleus. The AVP innervation of the lateral septum and the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus was moderately, although not significantly reduced. No age difference in AVP innervation was found in the paraventricular thalamic nucleus or in the nucleus of the solitary tract. OXT fiber density did not differ between young and old animals in the locus coeruleus, the nucleus of the solitary tract and the ambiguus nucleus. Thus, the aging process appears to affect AVP cells in a differential, rather than in a general way. Changes were found to be more pronounced in those areas where the AVP innervation is dependent upon circulating androgens.