Forebrain sites of action for drinking and salt appetite to angiotensin or captopril.

Abstract

Three-hour infusions of angiotensin II (ANG II) agonists and antagonists were used to determine the relative sites of action of ANG in producing water drinking and salt appetite. In the first experiment, lateral ventricular (LV) but not fourth ventricular (4V) ANG II elicited water and saline intake, and LV but not 4V sarile, a competitive ANG II receptor blocker, reduced saline intake aroused by ip injections of 10 mg/kg furosemide and 6 mg/kg captopril. In the second experiment, water, but not saline, intake to furosemide-captopril treatment was reduced by sarile infusions into the subfornical organ (SFO). It is concluded that (a) brain ANG receptors for water and saline intakes are more accessible from the forebrain than the hindbrain ventricles and (b) receptors for water drinking, but not saline intake, after captopril reside in part in the SFO. Salt appetite appears to be dependent on ANG II receptors somewhere in the forebrain other than in the SFO.