Paraventricular nucleus region controls pituitary-adrenal function in Brattleboro rats

To study the role of the paraventricular nucleus and of neurohypophysial hormones in the control of ACTH secretion, the paraventricular nuclei (PV) of Brattleboro diabetes insipidus rats (DI) were lesioned (L) with a knife; sham-lesioned DI (S) served as controls. Four days later, the rats were stressed by ether inhalation, and blood samples were taken during and 30-40 min after stress for the determination of corticosterone. The median eminence (ME) and neural lobe (NL) were homogenized in 50 microliters of 0.1 N HCl and frozen pending bioassay of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). PV lesion almost abolished the corticosterone secretion to ether and reduced the ME CRF content three- to sevenfold. The NL CRF content in S was about twice that of ME, and oxytocin accounted for more than 60% of NL CRF. However, PV lesion had no effect on NL CRF activity. Low amounts of oxytocin (2 mU/ml) had no significant CRF activity but potentiated the ME CRF effect in L. The results suggest that 1) PV is one of the most important sites for CRF synthesis or CRF fiber transit in DI; 2) corticosterone secretion to ether stress is governed mainly by ME CRF; and 3) a large proportion of CRF fibers to NL probably originates outside PV.