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Vasopressin release from the isolated neurohypophysis induced by a calcium ionophore, X-537A

Nature volume 249, pages 479–481 (1974)Cite this article

Abstract

TEN years ago observations on isolated neurohypophyses prompted the suggestion that action potentials in the hypothalamo-neurohypophysial tract release neurohypophysial hormones by promoting calcium influx and that the appearance of free calcium ions somewhere in the neurosecretory terminals provides the immediate stimulus for hormone extrusion1–3. Some time later it was argued that the role of calcium ions in stimulus-secretion coupling in this system and in many other secretory cells was to set in motion a common secretory mechanism, exocytosis4. Very recently the evidence supporting this view has been strengthened by light microscopic observations showing extrusion of secretory granules from mast cells on intracellular injection of calcium ions5. Meanwhile, electron microscopic6–11 and chemical12–16 evidence has borne out the conjecture that neurohypophysial hormones are secreted by exocytosis, and the case for calcium-influx as the initiating event has been strengthened by a number of observations set out in recent reviews15,16. These reviews make the further point that the neurohypophysis may be a useful model system for studying stimulus-secretion coupling in nerve cells generally: the involvement of calcium in release of neural transmitters is well-known and may have a similar explanation17,18.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06510

    Y. NAKAZATO & W. W. DOUGLAS

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  1. Y. NAKAZATO
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  2. W. W. DOUGLAS
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NAKAZATO, Y., DOUGLAS, W. Vasopressin release from the isolated neurohypophysis induced by a calcium ionophore, X-537A. Nature 249, 479–481 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/249479a0

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