Antidiuretic hormone binds to receptors on cells in the collecting ducts of the kidney and promotes reabsorption of water back into the circulation. In the absense of antidiuretic hormone, the collecting ducts are virtually impermiable to water, and it flows out as urine.
Antidiuretic hormone stimulates water reabsorbtion by stimulating insertion of "water channels" or aquaporins into the membranes of kidney tubules. These channels transport solute-free water through tubular cells and back into blood, leading to a decrease in plasma osmolarity and an increase osmolarity of urine.
Effects on the Vascular System
In many species, high concentrations of antidiuretic hormone cause widespread constriction of arterioles, which leads to increased arterial pressure. It was for this effect that the name vasopressin was coined. In healthy humans, antidiuretic hormone has minimal pressor effects.
Control of Antidiuretic Hormone Secretion
The most important variable regulating antidiuretic hormone secretion is plasma osmolarity, or the concentration of solutes in blood. Osmolarity is sensed in the hypothalamus by neurons known as an osmoreceptors, and those neurons, in turn, stimulate secretion from the neurons that produce antidiuretic hormone.
When plasma osmolarity is below a certain threshold, the osmoreceptors are not activated and secretio of antidiuretic hormone is suppressed. When osmolarity increases above the threshold, the ever-alert osmoreceptors recognize this as their cue to stimulate the neurons that secrete antidiuretic hormone. As seen the the figure below, antidiuretic hormone concentrations rise steeply and linearly with increasing plasma osmolarity.
Osmotic control of antidiuretic hormone secretion makes perfect sense. Imagine walking across a desert: the sun is beating down and you begin to lose a considerable amount of body water through sweating. Loss of water results in concentration of blood solutes - plasma osmolarity increases. Should you increase urine production in such a situation? Clearly not. Rather, antidiuretic hormone is secreted, allowing almost all the water that would be lost in urine to be reabsorbed and conserved.
Explanation: hormones
