Nitric oxide (NO) negatively modulates the secretion of vasopressin (AVP), oxytocin (OT) and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) induced by the increase in extracellular osmolality, whereas carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen sulphide (H 2 S) act to potentiate it; however, little information is available for the osmotic challenge model about whether and how such gaseous systems modulate each other. Therefore, using an acute ex vivo model of hypothalamic and neurohypophyseal explants (obtained from male 6/7-week-old Wistar rats) under conditions of extracellular iso-and hypertonicity, we determined the effects of NO (600 μmol L -1 sodium nitroprusside), CO (100 μmol L -1 tricarbonylchloro[glycinato]ruthenium [II]) and H 2 S (10 mmol L -1 sodium sulphide) donors and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) (300 μmol L -1 N ω -methyl-l-arginine [LNMMA]), haeme oxygenase (HO) (200 μmol L -1 Zn(II) deuteroporphyrin IX 2,4-bisethylene glycol [ZnDPBG]) and cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) (100 μmol L -1 aminooxyacetate [AOA]) inhibitors on the release of hypothalamic ANP and hypothalamic and neurohypophyseal AVP and OT, as well as on the activities of NOS, HO and CBS. LNMMA reversed hyperosmolality-induced NOS activity, and enhanced hormonal release by the hypothalamus and neurohypophysis, in addition to increasing CBS and hypothalamic HO activity. AOA decreased hypothalamic and neurohypophyseal CBS activity and hormonal release, whereas ZnDPBG inhibited HO activity and hypothalamic hormone release; however, in both cases, AOA did not modulate NOS and HO activity and ZnDPBG did not affect NOS and CBS activity. Thus, our data indicate that, although endogenous CO and H 2 S positively modulate AVP, OT and ANP release, only NO plays a concomitant role of modulator of hormonal release and CBS activity in the hypothalamus and neurohypophysis and that of HO activity in the hypothalamus during an acute osmotic stimulus, which suggests that NO is a key gaseous controller of the neuroendocrine system. K E Y W O R D S atrial natriuretic peptide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, nitric oxide, oxytocin, vasopressin 2 of 16 | COLETTI ET aL.
| INTRODUC TI ONThe release of vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT) by the hypothalamus and the neurohypophysis is a very complex and robust process that is controlled by many factors produced both within and outside these brain sites. 1 Among such factors, atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) stands out as established modulator of thirst and AVP release, 2-4 whereas a novel class of small polar molecules, mainly represented by nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen sulphide (H 2 S), 5 have achieved prominence more recently.NO is produced from the amino acid l-arginine via a reaction catalysed by the enzyme nitric oxide synthase (NOS), which presents three major isoforms (neuronal [nNOS], endothelial [eNOS] and inducible [iNOS]), where, in the central nervous system (CNS), nNOS is considered the main isoform. 6 NOS active form is usually dimeric and exhibits an oxygenase domain, in which, in addition to ...