AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 248, Issue 6 674-R678, Copyright © 1985 by American Physiological Society
Effect of intracerebroventricular vasopressin on body temperature and endotoxin fever of macaque monkey
T. F. Lee, F. Mora and R. D. Myers
In the adult monkey (Macaca fasicularis) acclimated to a primate restraint
chair, intracerebroventricular (ICV) cannulas were stereotaxically
implanted bilaterally in the lateral cerebral ventricle. During an
experiment, colonic and skin temperatures were continuously recorded, and
in selected cases heart and respiratory rates as well as O2 consumption
were similarly monitored. Arginine vasopressin (AVP) was infused ICV in a
volume of 500 microliter in one of six doses ranging from 16 to 4,240 ng.
The results showed that AVP in all doses infused failed to alter the
resting core and skin temperatures of the monkey or other recorded
physiological responses. After a fever was produced in the monkey by
1/10-1/100 dilution of Escherichia coli endotoxin infused ICV, AVP at doses
of 16-260 ng did not augment the febrile response. Further, AVP infused in
the same range of doses caused only a negligible and inconsistent
antipyretic action; i.e., the 65-ng dose of AVP lowered the mean core
temperature of the febrile monkey by only 0.5 degrees C. This was in marked
contrast to the antipyretic effect of dipyrone administered systemically.
In addition, no reproducible changes occurred in respiratory, heart, or
metabolic rates after ICV infusion of AVP. These results indicate that AVP
does not affect the normal thermoregulatory function of this species of
monkey and, in contrast to other species, a febrile response is neither
enhanced nor antagonized in the monkey by a central action of AVP. Although
AVP thus does not appear to be an endogenous antipyretic in the monkey,
anatomic investigations will be required to substantiate this conclusion in
the subhuman primate.
