Cardiac hormones: morphology and biochemistry.

The heart contains, in addition to its myocardial working cells and the conductive system, a specialized endocrine part localized mainly in the atrial appendage which is predominantly made up by myoendocrine cells. The ultrastructural and immunocytochemical analysis of myoendocrine cells show a specialized secretory apparatus involved in the synthesis and secretion of cardiac hormones. These cardiac hormones are synthesized and processed in the myoendocrine cells as follows: a preprohormone is found in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, the prohormone cardiodilatin/gamma-atrial natriuretic polypeptide (CDD/ANP) is processed in the Golgi apparatus and stored in the secretory granules. The circulating peptide, cardiodilatin 99-126/alpha-ANP, is the C-terminus of this preprohormone which is released as the active circulating form into the blood stream.