Independent desensitization of rat renal thick ascending limbs and collecting ducts to ADH.

Recent micropuncture studies have demonstrated that administration of high doses of 1-deamino-8-D-arginine vasopressin (dDAVP), a synthetic analogue of vasopressin (AVP), causes desensitization of the thick ascending limb to AVP but may leave unaltered the effect of this hormone on the permeability to water of the collecting duct. In the present experiments, desensitization to AVP was studied by measuring adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) synthesis in microdissected cortical thick ascending limbs (CTAL) and cortical collecting ducts (CCD) incubated in vitro. Desensitization was induced by intramuscular injections of dDAVP (2 micrograms/day for 3 days). In a first series of experiments, performed on Brattleboro rats lacking circulating AVP, the effects of AVP on cAMP accumulation were reduced by 30% in CTAL of the rats given dDAVP, whereas in CCD no reduction was noted. Desensitization of CTAL was selective for AVP (i.e., homologous), the effects of glucagon being unaltered. In a second series of experiments, performed on Sprague-Dawley rats, a marked (up to 75% 2 h after dDAVP injection), homologous and reversible desensitization of CTAL to AVP was observed. However, here again no desensitization was obtained in CCD, indicating that in the normal rat, administration of 2 micrograms dDAVP also elicited preferential desensitization of CTAL.