Regulation of Water Intake

Abstract

According to Fitzsimons (1972, 1975) one can define two types of drinking: 1) In primary or regulatory drinking there is a relative or an absolute lack of water in one of the fluid compartments. Primary drinking can be caused by cellular or extracellular dehydration. Cellular dehydration can be induced by application of hypertonic solutions of solutes that are excluded from the cells. Extracellular dehydration (i.e., loss of extracellular fluid) may be caused by hemorrhage, diarrhoea and gastric or intestinal fistulas. The drinking induced by some hypotensive drugs also seems to be of this type. 2) In secondary drinking the immediate need for water is not obvious. It is the normal pattern of drinking displayed by an animal. it is determined by circadian rhytm, etc. Its regulation has hardly been investigated and poorly understood. The present article will only deal with reports that have contributed to the undestanding of the role of catecholaminergic mechanisms in the gneral subject of the control of water intake the reader is referred to reviews of Morgane(1969), Stevenson (1969), Fitzsimons (1972), Blass and Hall (1976).KeywordsWater IntakeLateral HypothalamusRenin Angiotensin SystemMedial Forebrain BundleHypothalamic LesionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.