Membrane retrieval by vacuoles after exocytosis in the neural lobe of Brattleboro rats.

The possible role of microvesicles and vacuoles in the recapture of membrane after pituitary hormone release by exocytosis has been studied in homozygous Brattleboro rats. These mutant animals are unable to synthesize vasopressin and exhibit a steady state hypersecretion of oxytocin from the neural lobe as a result of the osmotic imbalance caused by their diabetes insipidus. This can be converted to a second steady state which approximates to the rate of secretion found in normal Long Evans rats by the administration of exogenous vasopressin daily for 30 days. In the Brattleboro rat, presumptive oxytocinergic nerve endings contain typical 160-170 nm diameter neurosecretory granules; other magnocellular nerve endings contain a population of smaller (approximately 100 nm diameter) dense-cored granules. The number of dense-cored granules was reduced in both types of nerve ending in the hypersecreting Brattleboro rats, but increased as a result of vasopressin treatment to levels which, for the classical neurosecretory granules, approximated that found in Long Evans rats. The microvesicle population of the nerve endings was essentially similar in quantitative terms in all the three groups (i.e. hypersecreting Brattleboro rats; vasopressin-treated Brattleboro rats and Long Evans controls). The number of vacuoles, on the other hand, was increased in nerve endings in the hypersecreting animals but reduced to levels found in Long Evans rats in the Brattleboro animals treated with vasopressin. Furthermore, the size of the vacuoles was comparable to the size of the dense-cored granules contained in the nerve endings. These changes in the vacuole population are exactly those that would be predicted for an organelle responsible for recapture of the granule membrane. We therefore conclude that membrane retrieval after exocytosis of neurosecretory granules in the neural lobe is achieved by vacuoles and that these organelles probably retrieve the membrane of the granule intact.