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The hypothalamic and neurohypophysial oxytocin content as influenced by desmethylimipramine in normal and pinealectomized white male rats

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Summary

Pinealectomized, sham-operated and non operated control rats were injected intracerebroventricularly (i.c.v.) with a single dose of desmethylimipramine hydrochloride (DMI; 20μg, dissolved in 10μl of normal saline); after 4 hours they were decapitated and the hypothalamic and neurohypophysial oxytocin content was bioassayed using the milk-ejection effectin vitro.

DMI decreased oxytocin content of the hypothalamus and neurointermediate lobe in non operated and sham-operated animals. In pinealectomized rats the oxytocin content of the hypothalamus and neurointermediate lobe diminished and could be further reduced by an i.c.v. DMI injection. As shown in animals pretreated with phenoxybenzamine, these events might be only partially related to an increase of alpha-adrenergic transmission.

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Author notes

  1. J. W. Guzek

    Present address: Department of Pathophysiology, University School of Medicine, Łodz, Poland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathophysiology, University School of Medicine, Łodz, Poland

    Marlena Juszczak

Authors
  1. J. W. Guzek
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  2. Marlena Juszczak
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Additional information

Conducted under contract No 10.4.04.9 with the Polish Academy of Sciences.- Submitted for poster presentation at the XXIX. Congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, Sydney, 28. August–3. September 1983 (abstract number 287.16). - A preliminary report, covering a part of the present findings, was published in Acta Physiologica Polonica34, 41–46 (1983).

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Guzek, J.W., Juszczak, M. The hypothalamic and neurohypophysial oxytocin content as influenced by desmethylimipramine in normal and pinealectomized white male rats. J. Neural Transmission 62, 125–136 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01260422

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