Sergeeva Irina A, Christoffels Vincent M
Dept of Anatomy, Embryology and Physiology, Heart Failure Research Center, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Biochim Biophys Acta. 2013 Dec;1832(12):2403-13. doi: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2013.07.003. Epub 2013 Jul 12.
The mammalian heart expresses two closely related natriuretic peptide (NP) hormones, atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). The excretion of the NPs and the expression of their genes strongly respond to a variety of cardiovascular disorders. NPs act to increase natriuresis and decrease vascular resistance, thereby decreasing blood volume, systemic blood pressure and afterload. Plasma levels of BNP are used as diagnostic and prognostic markers for hypertrophy and heart failure (HF), and both ANF and BNP are widely used in biomedical research to assess the hypertrophic response in cell culture or the development of HF related diseases in animal models. Moreover, ANF and BNP are used as specific markers for the differentiating working myocardium in the developing heart, and the ANF promoter serves as platform to investigate gene regulatory networks during heart development and disease. However, despite decades of research, the mechanisms regulating the NP genes during development and disease are not well understood. Here we review current knowledge on the regulation of expression of the genes for ANF and BNP and their role as biomarkers, and give future directions to identify the in vivo regulatory mechanisms. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Heart failure pathogenesis and emerging diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.
哺乳动物的心脏表达两种密切相关的利钠肽（NP）激素，即心房利钠因子（ANF）和脑利钠肽（BNP）。NP的排泄及其基因表达对多种心血管疾病有强烈反应。NP的作用是增加尿钠排泄并降低血管阻力，从而减少血容量、体循环血压和后负荷。BNP的血浆水平被用作肥大和心力衰竭（HF）的诊断和预后标志物，并且ANF和BNP都广泛应用于生物医学研究中，以评估细胞培养中的肥大反应或动物模型中HF相关疾病的发展。此外，ANF和BNP被用作发育中心脏中区分工作心肌的特异性标志物，并且ANF启动子作为研究心脏发育和疾病期间基因调控网络的平台。然而，尽管经过了数十年的研究，发育和疾病期间调节NP基因的机制仍未得到充分了解。在这里，我们综述了关于ANF和BNP基因表达调控及其作为生物标志物的作用的当前知识，并给出了确定体内调控机制的未来方向。本文是名为：心力衰竭发病机制及新出现的诊断和治疗干预措施的特刊的一部分。
