Sex differences in the cardiovascular and renal actions of vasopressin in conscious rats

The present study was carried out to investigate whether prostaglandins (PG) are involved in the mechanism that contributes to the sex difference in the antidiuretic and pressor actions of vasopressin. The experiments were performed in conscious male and nonestrous female rats. In hydrated rats, the graded infusion of vasopressin (10-1,000 pg.min 1.kg body wt-1) resulted in a dose-dependent antidiuresis: decreases in urine flow and free water clearance and an increase in urine osmolality. These responses were significantly greater in male than in nonestrous female rats. Pretreatment with a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, indomethacin (10 mg/kg body wt iv), significantly enhanced the antidiuretic response to vasopressin in both sexes. However, the magnitude of this enhancement was greater in female than in male rats. Thus indomethacin abolished the sex difference in the antidiuretic response to vasopressin. In a separate experiment in rats without water hydration and urine collection, infusion of pressor doses of vasopressin (1,000-6,000 pg.min-1.kg body wt-1) resulted in a greater increase in blood pressure in male than in nonestrous female rats. Treatment with indomethacin enhanced this response equivalently in both sexes and thus did not affect the sex difference in the pressor action of vasopressin. These data indicate that renal PG may mediate, at least in part, the sex difference in the antidiuretic action of vasopressin, whereas vascular PG seem not to play an important role in the sex difference in the pressor action of vasopressin.