Common aspects of the cerebral regulation of thirst and renal sodium excretion

Abstract

It has been shown that several mammalian species increase the excretion of sodium in urine as they become dehydrated. This dehydration-induced natriuresis occurs despite simultaneous hypovolemia, and it can be blocked by an experimentally-induced reduction in the sodium concentration of CSF, or by ablation of the periventricular tissue in the vicinity of the lamina terminalis. These two experimental procedures also disrupt thirst and vasopressin secretion. There may therefore be common features involved in the central control of osmoregulatory thirst, vasopressin secretion and sodium excretion. Experimental evidence in sheep suggests that whenever the tonicity of body fluids increases, a centrally mediated natriuretic mechanism is engaged. This cerebral natriuretic mechanism may contribute along with other influences such as the extracellular fluid volume, aldosterone and atrial natriuretic peptide, to determine the rate of sodium excretion by kidneys. The efferent pathway from brain to kidney mediating osmoregulatory natriuresis is not known. It is probably hormonal, because renal denervation does not disrupt such natriuresis.