Direct identification of the rat hepatocyte arginine8 vasopressin receptor with a radiolabelled V1-selective antagonist.

We compared [3H] arginine8 vasopressin (AVP) and [3H] 1-beta-mercapto-beta, beta-cyclopentamethylene propionic acid, O-methyl tyrosine2, arginine8 vasopressin (d(CH2)5 Tyr(Me)AVP), a selective V1 receptor antagonist, as radioligands for the rat hepatocyte V1 receptor. Both radioligands bound with high affinity to a site in partially purified membranes prepared from Long Evans rat hepatocytes. The binding site concentrations obtained with either radioligand, 608 +/- 101 fmol/mg protein (n = 5) with [3H] AVP and 603 +/- 62 fmol/mg protein (n = 5) with [3H]d(CH2)5 Tyr(Me)AVP, were not significantly (p greater than 0.5) different. Furthermore, the rank order of potency of a series of synthetic vasopressin analogs and related peptides were identical in competition studies using either radioligand and were consistent with a V1 receptor interaction. Our results demonstrate that [3H] d(CH2)5 Tyr(Me)AVP is a suitable radioligand to study the V1 receptor subtype.