In diabetes insipidus (DI) rats, electrical stimulation of the posterior pituitary lobes in vitro promotes the release of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). The CRF activity is abolished by preincubation of the posterior lobe media with thioglycolate. Oxytocin, which is released concomitantly into the medium (3.2 mIU/lobe/20 min), accounts for the complete CRF effect. Neural lobe extracts from DI and normal rats contain 40–70% more CRF activity than can be explained by their content in vasopressin and/or oxytocin. The discrepancy between released and extracted CRFs suggests that hypothetical CRFs or potentiating factors are not released from nerve endings or have to be present in high concentrations to manifest their effec