[An experimental study of arginine vasopressin on acute ischemic brain edema in gerbils (1)].

The purpose of this experiments is to study the role of arginine vasopressin (AVP) in acute ischemic brain edema of mongolian gerbils. The results showed that the contents of AVP in ischemic cortex, hypothalamus and striatum increased remarkably in 15-120 minutes after ischemia, while the contents of AVP had no change in pons-medulla which was not affected from ischemia, and there was relationship between the contents of AVP in cortex and the ischemic cortical edema. Intracerebroventricular injection (ICV) of AVP exacerbated the ischemic cortical edema and it showed dose-response correlation. While ICV of AVP antiserum significantly decreased ischemic cortical edema. These suggested that AVP was involved in the pathophysiologic process of acute ischemic brain edema. The increasing of AVP contents in ischemic brain regions could exacerbate the formation of ischemic brain edema.