Receptors to vasopressin and other hormones in the mammalian kidney

Abstract

In the course of the last decade, the systematic analysis of successive sites along the nephron where various hormones, including vasopressin, may regulate cell function by stimulating the intracellular production of cAMP revealed an unexpected panorama, and thereby raised a series of new questions. This contribution will discuss some of the observations we made when investigating this general field, those which, in our minds, were the most directly related to some aspect of the mechanism of urine concentration and dilution by the kidney. We focus mainly on problems raised by the sites and conditions in which vasopressin was observed to induce in vitro effects in different species. Consequently, we have attempted neither to cover the field of hormone receptors in the kidney, nor to quota extensively the literature. We are fully aware that, among the questions raised in this paper, many remain yet unanswered, whereas others may appear to be unwarranted in the future.