Neurohypophysial peptides and the hippocampus. I. Vasopressin immunoreactivity in the rat hippocampus

Immunocytochemical studies have demonstrated that nerve fibres containing immunoreactive vasopressin project to many areas of the central nervous system. In the present investigation, the presence of immunoreactive arginine vasopressin (IR-AVP) in the hippocampus of Wistar rats was confirmed by radioimmunoassay. The vasopressin content of the dorsal hippocampus was 30.3 +/- 7.3 pg IR-AVP/mg soluble protein (mean +/- SEM, n = 9) and that of the ventral hippocampus was 81.4 +/- 8.3 pg IR-AVP/mg soluble protein (n = 9), while tissue from the cerebral cortex contained no detectable vasopressin. That the immunoreactivity was due to vasopressin was confirmed by its absence in hippocampal or cortical tissue from homozygous Brattleboro rats, which are genetically unable to synthesize vasopressin.