Relationships between Increase in Plasma Renin Activity and Drinking Following Different Types of Dipsogenic Stimuli

Abstract

Major decreases in renal perfusion pressure are generally associated with increased renin release as well as water intake. Such acute responses can occur in the absence of increases in the effective osmolality of body fluids and of cellular dehydration, but do not occur in nephrectomized animals. These results, together with findings that drinking can be induced in the water-satiated rat by peripheral or intracerebral administration of renin, angiotensin I, or angiotensin II, suggest that angiotensin acts as a natural dipsogen as part of its role in the maintenance of circulatory homeostasis (for review, see Fitzsimons, 1972). In the present experiments in rats, acute and more prolonged stimuli of renin secretion have been used in order to assess the quantitative and temporal relationships between changes in plasma renin activity and in water intake.