[Characterization of vasopressin receptors in cerebral endothelial cells].

In target cells with receptors of the V2 type, vasopressin activates the adenylate cyclase and induces, finally, a clustering of intramembranous particles in the plasma membrane. Both characteristic effects, however, could not be observed at hippocampal capillaries of the rat. The presumed vasopressin receptors at cerebral capillaries that represent the blood-brain barrier are, therefore, probably not of the V2 type.