[Effect of lithium chloride on the rat hypothalamus neurosecretory system].

Methods of quantitative cytochemical analysis were applied to the study of the reaction of the hypothalamohypophysial neurosecretory system (HHNS) to single and course administrations of lithium chloride (in doses of 200 mg/kg). Reaction of the HHNS proved to depend directly on the amount of lithium administered and was characteriaed by the activation of the synthesis and elemination of the neurosecretion with a single administration on the preparation, or depression of the hormonopoiesis in the hypothalamus and exhaustion of the neurosecretion stores in the neurohypophysis in its course application. During the restoration (7 to 30 days after stopping the drug administration) the state of the HHNS gradually approached the initial level. The authors came to the conclusion that the changes in the central mechanisms of the neuro-endocrine regulation at the hypothalamic level caused by lithium were significant in the pathogenesis of the side-action of its salts