Vasopressin Potentiates Cyclic Amp Accumulation and Acth Release Induced by Corticotropin-Releasing Factor (Crf) in Rat Anterior Pituitary Cells in Culture

The agonist,[Asu11,6Arg8]vasopressin (VAS-A), causes a 2-fold increase in the stimulatory effect of CRF on ACTH release in rat anterior pituitary cells in culture. Although the vasopressin agonist alone has no effect on cyclic AMP levels, it causes a 2-fold increase in CRF-induced cyclic AMP accumulation at all time intervals and concentrations of CRF. The present data show that the potentiating effect of vasopressin on CRF-induced ACTH release is achieved through parallel changes of intracellular cyclic AMP levels