title: Ganglionic, spinal cord and hypothalamic atrial natriuretic factor: its distribution, origin and possible role in spontaneously hypertensive rats.
abstract: We report the occurrence of the atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) prohormone in the hypothalamus, spinal cord and sympathetic ganglia determined by measurement of immunoreactive ANF by two peptide-specific radio-immunoassays with antibodies against near-C-terminal and near-N-terminal portions of ANF prohormone. This suggests local ANF generation in neural structures. In spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) we found an elevated ANF-C content in all tissues along the pathway of increased efferent sympathetic outflow, which is present in this animal model. The ANF-N was augmented in SHR only in the hypothalamus. This indicates an overall increase of neural ANF in SHR. The reported neuroinhibitory function of increased neural ANF, however, was attenuated by a decrease in the number of some brain and peripheral ganglionic ANF binding sites in SHR. It remains to be determined whether the increased neural ANF in SHR is a primary phenomenon or a compensatory increase induced by high blood pressure.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kuchel
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Debinski
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thibault
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cantin
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Genest
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005724:Ganglia / Q000378:metabolism*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000378:metabolism*; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000378:metabolism*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR / Q000378:metabolism*; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains / Q000378:metabolism*; D011921:Rats, Inbred WKY; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor