HS-142-1 inhibits testosterone production and guanosine-3′: 5′-cyclic monophosphate accumulation stimulated by atrial natriuretic peptide in isolated mouse Leydig cells

In this report, we describe the effects of a recently described atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) antagonist, HS-142-1, on the action of ANP on Percoll-purified mouse Leydig cells. Incubation of the Leydig cells with 10(-8) M ANP for 3 h resulted in a 16-fold stimulation of testosterone production over basal. Addition of HS-142-1 in a concentration range of 0.1 to 5 micrograms/ml resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of ANP-induced testosterone production, a nearly complete inhibition being achieved with 5 micrograms/ml antagonist. Testosterone production by unstimulated cells or in cells stimulated with hCG was not affected by the antagonist. HS-142-1 was also able to inhibit the ANP-stimulated cyclic guanosine monophosphate (GMP) formation in the cells, in a dose-dependent manner. However, cyclic AMP level in cells stimulated with either forskolin or hCG remained unaffected by HS-142-1 even when added at a concentration of 5 micrograms/ml. Results obtained from 125I-ANP binding experiments showed that HS-142-1 is able to competitively inhibit the binding of the radioligand to its receptors on the Leydig cells. Thus evidence obtained in this study permit us to conclude that HS-142-1 is a potent and specific antagonist of ANP, has no toxic effect on the cells and is able to inhibit competitively the binding of ANP to its guanylate cyclase coupled receptors. Availability of such antagonists are likely to facilitate research on the physiology of ANP.