Gastric vagotomy inhibits drinking after hypertonic saline.

Rats with bilateral subdiaphragmatic vagotomy drank later and less in response to cellular dehydration produced by hypertonic saline. In an attempt to localize this deficit neurologically, we performed selective gastric, hepatic or coeliac vagotomies. The drinking responses of such selectively lesioned rats were compared with total bilateral vagotomized rats and sham operated rats after 0.15 M and 1 M NaCl (1% BW). Gastric vagotomy reproduced the drinking deficits that occurred after total vagotomy, but hepatic and coeliac vagotomies did not. These results demonstrate that disconnection of the gastric vagal fibers is the necessary and sufficient lesion of the abdominal vagal system for decreasing the drinking response to hypertonic saline.