Vasopressin analogs: sedative properties and passive avoidance behavior in rats.

The effects of several types of vasopressin analogs that are considered to be resistant to some of the physiologically significant enzymatic systems were investigated utilizing rats trained in a passive avoidance task. Enhancement of avoidance latencies was observed 2, 7 and 13 days after the single learning trial when deamino-carbavasopressins, triglycyl-8-lysine-vasopressin or its des-glycinamide derivative, and deamino-D-arginine-vasopressin were given shortly after the learning trial in the dose of 1 microgram s.c. (8-L-Arginine)deamino-6-carba-vasopressin and (8-L-ornithine)deamino-6-carba-vasopressin were also active in the dose of 0.1 microgram. Lysine vasopressin and its des-glycinamide derivative failed to enhance avoidance latencies in part of the experiments if doses of 0.3--3 micrograms were administered and 7 or 13 day intervals were used between the learning and the test trials. Enhancement of avoidance latencies was also observed, if some of the peptides were injected 20 min but not 120 or 180 min before the test trial. Marked depression of exploratory behavior of rats in an open field was found after s.c. injections of low doses (1--3 micrograms kg-1) of deamino-carba-vasopressins. Higher doses (10--30 micrograms kg-1) induced sleep-like immobility not accompanied by ataxia or catalepsy.