Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) has previously been localized in areas of mammalian brain associated with olfaction, cardiovascular function, and fluid/electrolyte homeostasis. Despite the presence of several types of natriuretic peptide receptors in mammalian cerebellum, neither intrinsic nor extrinsic sources of the natriuretic peptides have been described. In this report we describe the imm...

BACKGROUND Patients with the sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome have increased salt and water excretion at night which has been reported to be associated with an increase in plasma levels of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP). A study was performed to determine whether any rise in plasma ANP levels was related to nocturnal hypoxaemia. METHODS Nine patients with sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome were...

Atrial natriuretic peptide was found in the heart of vertebrates, we studied the ANP presence in the heart of Ciona intestinalis. This is animal is very important because of the its evolutionary position between invertebrates and vertebrates. ANP presence was only revealed in myoepithelial cells of the myocardium. Results suggest the hypothesis that ANP is present not only in the vertebrates bu...

Endothelin-converting enzyme-1 (ECE-1) is a membrane-bound metalloprotease that cleaves biologically inactive big endothelin-1 (ET-1) into active ET-1. ET-1 is involved in the cardiovascular homeostasis and the development of cardiovascular diseases including pulmonary arterial hypertension and heart failure. Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is an endogenous hormone that is released from the...

In spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), high NaCl diets increase arterial pressure and sympathetic nervous system activity by decreasing noradrenaline release in the anterior hypothalamic area (AHA), thereby reducing the activation of sympathoinhibitory neurons in AHA. Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) can inhibit the release of noradrenaline, and ANP concentration is elevated in the AHA of SH...

A recent study on stable, hypoxemic, COLD patients in which ANP was stimulated by LBPP demonstrated that in these individuals elevation of ANP does not exert a "normal" suppressing effect on the PRA-PA axis. Accordingly, we exercised ten comparable COLD patients, another maneuver known to stimulate ANP and to elicit cardiorespiratory responses substantially different from those observed with LB...