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The atrial natriuretic activity of rat heart has been found to exist in multiple forms. One of these factors has been purified to apparent homogeneity by a combination of gel filtration and high pressure liquid chromatography in two different systems and its amino acid composition determined. The purified active peptide is shown to have a molecular weight of approximately 3800. In addition, the vasorelaxant activity of rat atrium has been purified and found to co-chromatograph with the natriuretic activity in all chromatographic systems employed. Thus, the vasorelaxant activity resides in the natriuretic factor. The existence of this new multifunctional peptide implies a higher level of complexity for cardiovascular control of blood volume and pressure.

Two atrial natriuretic peptides, containing 25 amino acid residues, ANF IV, and 21 amino acid residues, ANF V, were synthesized by a solid phase method and oxidized with K3Fe(CN)6 to form a disulfide bridge. Synthetic ANF IV exhibited a natriuretic activity with an ED50 70 times higher than that of synthetic ANF V, whereas the longer peptide was only 2.5 times more potent in chick rectal smooth muscle relaxant activity. Both peptides inhibited norepinephrine-induced contraction of rabbit aorta. The shorter peptide, ANF V, was 300 times less efficient than the longer peptide, ANF IV. It is proposed that the carboxy-terminal of ANF IV seems to have a modulating effect on receptor affinity in kidney and vascular tissue.

The complete amino acid sequence of an atrial natriuretic peptide from rat possessing both natriuretic and smooth muscle relaxant activity has been determined. The peptide has the structure (sequence in text) and a calculated molecular weight of 2,706. The ring structure formed by the disulfide linkage between the two half-cystine residues was found essential for both the natriuretic activity and smooth muscle relaxant activity. The purified peptide caused 50% relaxation of norepinephrine (5 X 10(-8)M) induced contraction of rabbit thoracic aorta at the concentration of 2 X 10(-9)M and complete relaxation at 6 X 10(-9)M.

The atrium of the heart contains peptides, termed atrial natriuretic factors ( ANFs ), diuretic and smooth-muscle-relaxing activities. In view of its potent effects on salt metabolism in the kidney and on vascular smooth muscle, ANF is considered to play an important part in the control of fluid volume and vascular function. Several different ANF peptides varying in size have been isolated and their amino acid sequences determined. Analysis of the sequences of the peptides suggests that they are derived by proteolysis from the same precursor. To examine this hypothesis, we have cloned cDNAs of the ANF precursor using rat atrial mRNA, determined its nucleotide sequence and deduced its amino acid sequence. The ANF precursor consists of 152 amino acid residues including a putative signal peptide sequence. This sequence contains the amino acid sequences of all the ANF peptides reported to date.

A rapid and reproducible radioimmunoassay method was developed for rat atrial natriuretic factor (ANF)-IV. The method is also applicable to human atrial peptide. ANF was detected in rat hypothalamus (5.03 pmoles/g tissue), right (86.8 pmoles/mg tissue) and left atria (52.5 pmoles/mg tissue), and plasma (156 fmoles/ml). After high salt intake immunoreactive ANF in atria and plasma increased significantly, while a significant decrease was observed in hypothalamus. Gel chromatography revealed high and low molecular weight ANF in atria and hypothalamus while only a low molecular weight form was found in plasma.

It is known that atrial extracts (AE) and synthetic atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) can increase glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and electrolyte and water excretion both in vivo and in vitro. It is not clear, however, if ANF-induced increases in filtered load (increased GFR) are required to produce natriuresis and diuresis. We perfused isolated rat kidneys with AE or synthetic ANF at constant pressure in a single-pass system. Extracts of atrial tissue (1 mg/ml) and high concentrations of ANF (31 and 61 ng/ml) significantly increased both GFR and electrolyte and water excretion. During continued infusion of ANF, GFR stabilized at increased levels, but sodium and water excretion continued to increase. After the termination of infusions, GFR and potassium excretion returned to control levels, but sodium and water excretion remained significantly elevated. Infusion of a low concentration of ANF (3 ng/ml) significantly increased sodium and water excretion without changing either GFR or potassium excretion. We conclude that increases in GFR are not a prerequisite for natriuresis and diuresis in response to ANF, but that increases in GFR can potentiate the response. Furthermore, our data suggest that ANF increases potassium excretion only if it increases GFR.

Radioiodinated synthetic atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) bound to a single class of high affinity binding sites in the plasma membrane from bovine adrenal cortex with a KD of 7.4 X 10(-10) M. The binding affinities of related peptides showed close parallelism to their potencies in natriuretic and vasorelaxant activities. Incubation of adrenal membranes with radioiodinated 4-azidobenzoyl ANF or a similar derivative of its analogue followed by photolysis resulted in specific radiolabeling of a protein band in SDS gel electrophoresis with an apparent Mr of 124,000 in bovine or Mr of 126,000 in rat, which was abolished by inclusion of unmodified ANF in the incubation. Prevention of the labeling was dependent on the concentration of ANF and was not observed with atriopeptin I or with unrelated peptides, angiotensin II, ACTH or [Arg8] vasopressin. These results indicate specific covalent labeling of ANF-receptor or its subunit by the photoaffinity ligands.