title: Local atrial natriuretic peptide signaling prevents hypertensive cardiac hypertrophy in endothelial nitric-oxide synthase-deficient mice.
abstract: The crucial functions of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and endothelial nitric oxide/NO in the regulation of arterial blood pressure have been emphasized by the hypertensive phenotype of mice with systemic inactivation of either the guanylyl cyclase-A receptor for ANP (GC-A-/-) or endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS-/-). Intriguingly, similar levels of arterial hypertension are accompanied by marked cardiac hypertrophy in GC-A-/-, but not in eNOS-/-, mice, suggesting that changes in local pathways regulating cardiac growth accelerate cardiac hypertrophy in the former and protect the heart of the latter. Our recent observations in mice with conditional, cardiomyocyte-restricted GC-A deletion demonstrated that ANP locally inhibits cardiomyocyte growth. Abolition of these local, protective effects may enhance the cardiac hypertrophic response of GC-A-/- mice to persistent increases in hemodynamic load. Notably, eNOS-/- mice exhibit markedly increased cardiac ANP levels, suggesting that increased activation of cardiac GC-A can prevent hypertensive heart disease. To test this hypothesis, we generated mice with systemic inactivation of eNOS and cardiomyocyte-restricted deletion of GC-A by crossing eNOS-/- and cardiomyocyte-restricted GC-A-deficient mice. Cardiac deletion of GC-A did not affect arterial hypertension but significantly exacerbated cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in eNOS-/- mice. This was accompanied by marked cardiac activation of both the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) ERK 1/2 and the phosphatase calcineurin. Our observations suggest that local ANP/GC-A/cyclic GMP signaling counter-regulates MAPK/ERK- and calcineurin/nuclear factor of activated T cells-dependent pathways of cardiac myocyte growth in hypertensive eNOS-/- mice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Universitätsklinikum Münster, D-48129 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bubikat
authors.forename: León J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: De Windt
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zetsche
authors.forename: Larissa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fabritz
authors.forename: Heidrun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sickler
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eckardt
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gödecke
authors.forename: Hideo A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuhn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015153:Blotting, Western; D006152:Cyclic GMP / Q000378:metabolism; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005838:Genotype; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000473:pathology; D006973:Hypertension / Q000473:pathology; D006984:Hypertrophy; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; D052250:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III; D010641:Phenotype; D010766:Phosphorylation; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; D052250:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III; C496315:Nos3 protein, mouse; D006152:Cyclic GMP