In order to assess the effects of centrally administered atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) on renal water and electrolytes handling, arterial blood pressure, plasma vasopressin, renin activity, aldosterone, and ANP concentrations, synthetic \g=a\-human ANP (\g=a\-hANP) was administered intracerebroventricularly at a dose of 2.6 pmol \m=.\ kg\ m=-\ 1 \m=.\ min\m=-\1 for 30 min in pentobarbitalanaesthetized dogs (N = 6). In the control study (N = 6), artificial cerebrospinal fluid was infused. Intracerebroventricular administration of \g=a\-hANPincreased significantly urine flow from 178 \m=+-\37 to 303 \m=+-\43 \g=m\l/min (mean \ m=+-\sem), sodium excretion from 27.3 \ m=+-\8.9 to 54.4 \m=+-\10.5, \ g=m\ mol / mi n, potassium excretion from 16.1 \m=+-\3.7 to 24.0 \m=+-\ 5.1 \ g=m\ mol / mi n, and osmolar and negative free water clearances, accompanied by a significant rise in renal blood flow from 77.0 \m=+-\14.6 to 94.9 \m=+-\16.9 ml/min. Whereas glomerular filtration rate fell significantly, blood pressure and heart rate did not change.Plasma ANP, aldosterone, and PRA did not change significantly during the experiment, but plasma AVP were slightly but significantly decreased from 52 \m=+-\11 to 34 \m=+-\6 nmol/l. On the other hand, these parameters showed no changes in the control study, except a significant fall in glomerular filtration rate and a significant rise in PRA. Thus, it has been confirmed that ANP centrally brings about diuresis, natriuresis, and kaliuresis via some unknown mechanisms independent of the release of these hormones.It is well known that there is a peptide hormone in the mammalian atrium (atrial natriuretic peptide, ANP), which is released in response to the expan¬ sion of extracellular fluid volume, resulting in natriuresis and vaso relaxation (De Bold 1986).More recently, it has been reported that ANP is also present in the central nervous system in rats (David et al. 1985;Morii et al. 1985;Saper et al. 1985;Tanaka et al. 1984) and its content in these areas is decreased in response to dehydration (Samson 1985b). Furthermore, ANP is shown peripherally to inhibit dehydration-and haemor¬ rhage-induced AVP release in rats (Samson 1985a) and, at high doses, to attenuate AVP release from the isolated rat posterior pituitary gland (Januszewicz et al. 1985). Moreover, intraventricular administration of ANP has been re¬ ported to induce a diuresis and natriuresis in rats (Fitts et al. 1985;Israel & Barbella 1986).Therefore, ANP in the central nervous system is suspected to play an important role in the regulation of body fluid, but whether intracerebroventricular administration of ANP affects ar¬ terial blood pressure and the release of AVP, ANP, renin, and aldosterone and how it influences natriuresis and diuresis still remain questionable. The present study was undertaken to investi¬ gate the central effects of ANP on renal function, blood pressure and heart rate, PRA, plasma aldo¬ sterone concentration, and plasma AVP and ANP concentrations in anaesthetized dogs.
Materials and MethodsExperim...