Vasopressin-neurophysin II gene expression in the ovary: studies in Sprague–Dawley, Long–Evans and Brattleboro rats

Abstract

ABSTRACT The neurohypophysial hormones oxytocin and arginine vasopressin (AVP) have been identified on immunological criteria in the ovary. Confirmation of extraneuronal synthesis requires the demonstration in the tissue of the specific messenger RNA (mRNA) for the preprohormone. Using a synthetic pentadecamer nucleotide probe, highly specific for the 5′ region of rat neurophysin II (NPII), we have demonstrated the presence of AVP-NPII mRNA in the ovary of Sprague–Dawley, Long–Evans and Brattleboro rats, with an apparent molecular weight identical to that seen for hypothalamus. These findings, together with the presence of immunoreactive AVP in the ovaries but not hypothalami of Brattleboro rats, suggest that tissue-specific differences in AVP-NP II gene expression occur at the translational as well as transcriptional level. J. Endocr. (1985) 105, 317–321