Vasopressin potentiates the noradrenaline-induced accumulation of cyclic AMP in the rat superior cervical ganglion.

Previous experiments gave biochemical and electrophysiological evidence for the presence of functional V1-vasopressin receptors coupled to inositol lipid metabolism, but not to cyclic AMP accumulation in the rat superior cervical ganglion. This work was designed to investigate whether there was an action of vasopressin on the noradrenaline-induced cyclic AMP accumulation through the activation of phospholipase C. Our results clearly demonstrate that arginine-vasopressin potentiates cyclic AMP accumulation induced by noradrenaline or isoproterenol in a concentration-dependent manner. The potentiation was unaffected by phentolamine, but was suppressed by the V1-type vasopressin receptor antagonists. Moreover, the phorbol ester 4 beta-phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (TPA) did not affect this potentiation which seemed to be Ca2+-dependent. The results suggest that vasopressin may modulate the activity of autonomous functions in the sympathetic ganglia.