Sex difference in urinary concentrating ability of rats with water
deprivation.
Wang, Yi-Xin, Joan T. Crofton, Justin Miller, Christine J. Sigman,
Hanwu Liu, Jonathan M. Huber, David P. Brooks, and Leonard Share.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, The University of
Tennessee, Memphis, TN 38163 and Department of Renal Pharmacology,
SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, King of Prussia, PA 19406
APStracts 2:0283R, 1995.
Our previous demonstration of sexual dimorphism in the antidiuretic
response to exogenous vasopressin prompted us to investigate the
response to moderately high levels of endogenous vasopressin
stimulated by water deprivation in conscious rats. Following 24 h
water deprivation, urine flow was significantly higher and urine
osmolality lower in females than in males. Plasma concentrations of
vasopressin were higher in females than in males following water
deprivation, but plasma osmolality did not differ. Gonadectomy, which
had no effect in dehydrated males, decreased urine flow and increased
urine osmolality in females to levels observed in intact and
gonadectomized males. Spontaneous water intake was also measured, and
found to be lower in males and estrous females than in females in the
other phases of the estrous cycle. These observations support the
concept that there is a gender difference in the antidiuretic
responsiveness to endogenous vasopressin, that this difference is
dependent upon the ovarian hormones, and that it may lead to
differences in consumptive behavior.
Received 20 March 1995; accepted in final form 4 October 1995.
APS Manuscript Number R183-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 14 November 95