Morphometric changes of specific located vasopressin-reacting parvicellular neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the rat after adrenalectomy.

The morphological-morphometric consequences of bilateral adrenalectomy on vasopressin-reacting neurons of the paraventricular nucleus of the rat hypothalamus were analyzed. Bilateral adrenalectomy led to a dramatic increase in the cellular area as well as the number of immunoreactive cells (when compared to those obtained in normal colchicine-treated animals) in the neurons located in the anterior, medial and periventricular parvicellular subdivisions of the paraventricular nucleus. By contrast, no changes were observed in either the dorsal or lateral parvicellular subdivisions or in any of the magnocellular subdivisions of the paraventricular nucleus.