Investigation of Vasopressin receptors function in neural cell survival system and development of neural-protection therapy

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In this study, the roles of vasopressin(AVP) for neural cell death were examined. The gene expression analysis and innmunohistochemical analysis revealed that V1a receptor and V1b receptor were expressed in hippocampal neuron and astrocyte, and that AVP was expressed in hippocampal astrocyte. AVP could reduce the kainic-acid induced hippocampal neural death in vitro. Kainic-acid induced hippocampus degeneration model showed that seizure severity of V1a receptor and V1b receptor knock out mice were reduced compare to wild type mice, respectively. These results suggest that AVP could protect hippocampal neuron via V1a and/or V1b receptor, and that AVP could protect hippocampal neuron via astrocyte indirectly as well as to neuron directly. On the other hand, immunohistochemical analysis for neural degeneration in kainic-acid induced hippocampus degeneration model showed that kainic-induced neural degeneration was more severe in V1a receptor knock out mice than in V1b receptor knock out mice. This result suggests that there are difference of neural protective function between V1a receptor and V1b receptor. Thus, it is suggest that investigation of AVP function for glial function as well as neural function lead to novel therapy strategy for neural degeneration disease using AVP and/or AVP agonist/antagonist.