Regulation of plasma atrial natriuretic peptide and the cardiopulmonary baroreflex in the rat.

To study the physiological regulation of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), we examined the effects of volume expansion and depletion and the influence of cardiopulmonary baroreflex on plasma ANP levels in pentobarbital-anesthetized male Wistar rats. The volume expansion by acute intravenous saline infusion (2% of body weight) increased central venous pressure (CVP) and decreased heart rate (HR) in rats with intact baroreflex. The plasma ANP level in the volume expanded group was significantly higher than that in the control rats (453 +/- 100 vs 170 +/- 40 pg/ml, p less than 0.01). Conversely the plasma ANP level decreased from 214 +/- 15 to 125 +/- 13 pg/ml (p less than 0.01) accompanied by a fall in CVP and an increase in HR after nonhypotensive hemorrhage (0.8% of body weight). Hypotensive hemorrhage (2% of body weight) caused a progressive decrease in CVP while plasma ANP did not decrease further (141 +/- 25 pg/ml). Bilateral vagotomy did not modify either the basal plasma ANP level or the plasma ANP responses to volume expansion and depletion, though it inhibited HR response. These results indicate that in the rat, plasma ANP responds not only to volume expansion but also to moderate volume depletion suggesting that ANP may have a physiological role in body fluid homeostasis. The ANP response to changes in blood volume appears to be independent of the cardiopulmonary baroreflex with vagal afferent.