Atrial natriuretic peptide secretion during development of the rat supraoptic nucleus.
Since a relationship between atrial natriuretic peptide and oxytocin was recently demonstrated in the heart (Gutkowska et al., 1997), the aim of this study was to determine whether a relationship between the two peptides is present also in the rat hypothalamus. For this purpose, we measured ANP-ontogeny in the rat hypothalamus immunohistochemically and compared it with oxytocin-ontogeny which we previously studied. The results showed that the ANP-peptide and mRNA-ANP start at the 18th day of the fetal life. Our earlier data for oxytocin in the rat hypothalamus showed that only mRNA-oxytocin appeared the 18th day of foetal life (Farina Lipari et al., 2001); thus, at the 18th day of foetal life, mRNA-ANP, ANP-peptide and mRNA-oxytocin are present. We conclude that in the hypothalamus, differently from that in the heart, ANP might play a role on the synthesis of the oxytocin since ANP and its mRNA appear earlier than oxytocin.
Farina Lipari
E
E
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale Sezione di Anatomia Umana Normale, Policlinico, Via del Vespro 127, 90129 Palermo; Italy. farina.elviravitt@tiscali.it
Lipari
D
D
Dieli
F
F
Valentino
B
B
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002466:Cell Nucleolus / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000235:genetics; D011247:Pregnancy; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013495:Supraoptic Nucleus / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism*
D012333:RNA, Messenger; D010121:Oxytocin; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor