Osmotic and volaemic regulation of atrial and ventricular natriuretic peptide secretion in conscious eels.

Abstract

The effects of acute manipulation of plasma osmolality and blood volume on plasma atrial and ventricular natriuretic peptide (ANP and VNP) levels were examined in conscious freshwater eels, Anguilla japonica. A bolus injection of hypertonic NaCl (0.85 M and 1.7 M, 2.5 ml/kg body weight) through a catheter into the ventral aorta produced increases in plasma Na concentration and osmolality with parallel concentration-dependent, transient increases in plasma ANP and VNP levels. Plasma ANP and VNP levels also increased after injection of 1.7 M mannitol solution which produced an increase in plasma osmolality but a decrease in plasma Na concentration. However, injection of a 2.0 M solution of urea, which does not cause cellular dehydration in mammals, produced only small increases in plasma ANP and VNP levels, although plasma osmolality increased. A bolus injection of 10 or 25 ml/kg isotonic saline supplemented with 2% dextran for colloidal osmotic pressure, which theoretically increased blood volume by 29% or 71%, produced volume-dependent, transient increases in plasma ANP and VNP levels without changes in plasma Na concentration and osmolality. Similar volume expansion with dialysed eel plasma caused greater increases than with dextran-saline. However, these increases were much smaller than those after osmotic stimuli. These results indicate that secretion of ANP and VNP is regulated by two receptor mechanisms: osmo-receptors activated by cellular dehydration, not specifically by hypernatraemia, and volume or stretch receptors activated by hypervolaemia. The relative importance of the osmoreceptive mechanism is greater in eels than in mammals where volaemic regulation dominates over osmotic regulation for ANP secretion.