Effects of bromocriptine on pituitary arginine vasopressin content in hypertensive and normotensive rats

Abstract

Chronic intraperitoneal administration of bromocriptine (BRC), a centrally acting dopaminergic agonist, has been shown in our earlier studies to reduce the systolic blood pressure (BP) more significantly in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR) and the New Zealand genetically hypertensive (GH) rats than in their respective normotensive controls, the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and Normotensive (NT) rats. This paper reports further on those studies in describing the effects of BRC on the pituitary arginine vasopressin (AVP) content in those rats. The results showed that the effects of BRC on pituitary AVP content in the SHR and GH rats were not related to those on systolic BP, suggesting that AVP may not have a significant role to play in the hypertension of the SHR and GH rats.