Atrial Natriuretic Peptide, Heart Failure and the Heart as an Endocrine Organ.

Abstract

Featured Article: Burnett JC Jr, Kao PC, Hu DC, Heser DW, Heublein D, Granger JP, et al. Atrial natriuretic peptide elevation in congestive heart failure in the human. Science 1986;231:1145–7.3 Thirty-three years ago, we reported the increase of circulating atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP)4 in human heart failure (HF). This report, which is featured here, was published 5 years after the landmark work of de Bold that established the heart as an endocrine organ with the discovery of ANP, which he originally named atrial natriuretic factor (1). Indeed, what followed has been a transformational journey that has changed our thinking of the heart as more than a pump and has contributed to the clinical development of a second cardiac natriuretic peptide, b-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), as the gold standard in HF diagnosis. The work of Waldman and Murad importantly established that ANP activated the particulate guanylyl cyclase A receptor resulting in the production of the second messenger, 3′,5′ cyclic guanosine …