An atrial peptide is a potent renal vasodilator substance.

Renal intra-arterial administration of rat atrial extracts elicits a concentration dependent renal vasodilation (independent of prostaglandin or dopamine release) in anesthetized rats. The atrial extracts do not alter skeletal musculature (hindlimb) vascular resistance or systemic arterial blood pressure. The high molecular weight peptide fraction of atrial extracts obtained by gel filtration, reduces renal resistance intra-arterially only after proteolytic activation (in vitro) or following intravenous (i.e., systemic in vivo activation) administration. The low molecular weight peptide fraction of the atrial extract which is active intra-arterially as a renal vasodilator has been further purified to yield two major peptides. The 21 amino acid peptide, designated atriopeptin I, was previously demonstrated to be natriuretic and to relax intestinal but not vascular smooth muscle strips. This peptide exerted little or no intra-arterial effect on renal resistance. The 23 amino acid peptide (the phenylalanine-arginine C terminal extension of atriopeptin I), designated atriopeptin II, was natriuretic and spasmolytic (in vitro) on both intestinal and vascular strips and was a potent renal vasodilator in vivo. Thus, the renal vasodilator activity present in cardiac atrial extracts appears to derive from a proteolytic process which selectively generates the 23 amino acid peptide, atriopeptin II. Further cleavage with the loss of phenylalanine-arginine C-terminal, as occurs with atriopeptin I, markedly suppresses the renal vasodilation.