Presence of atrial natriuretic peptide-like material in guinea pig intestine.

Acidic extracts of guinea pig jejunum and colon contain atrial natriuretic peptide-like material (IR-ANP) detected by radioimmunoassay after purification by Sephadex G-50 gel filtration. Immunohistochemical analysis of guinea pig colon also revealed IR-ANP to be located directly beneath the lamina muscularis mucosae. High performance gel permeation chromatography (HP-GPC) and reverse phase high performance chromatography (RP-HPLC) of the IR-ANP showed correspondence to the 15 kD ANP precursor molecule (pro-ANP). No low molecular weight forms of ANP were detected. The extracted pro-ANP could be converted to alpha-ANP-like material by incubation with serum or supernatant of colonic homogenate. These data indicate the intestine to be a further site of ANP synthesis.