EDITORIAL

B Type natriuretic peptide: a good omen in myocardial ischaemia?

S P D’Souza¹, G F Baxter²

¹ The Heart Hospital, London, UK
² The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr G F Baxter, Department of Basic Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Royal College Street, London NW1 0TU, UK;
gfbaxter@rvc.ac.uk

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Although BNP is now firmly established as a diagnostic and prognostic marker of ventricular dysfunction, its autocrine and paracrine actions within the heart have received less attention

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Keywords: B type natriuretic peptide; BNP; cardiac remodelling; guanylyl cyclase; infarction; ischaemia; nesiritide

Abbreviations: ANP, atrial natriuretic peptide; BNP, B type or brain natriuretic peptide; CNP, C type natriuretic peptide; DNP, Dendroaspis natriuretic peptide; K_ATP, ATP dependent potassium channel; NEP 24.11, neutral endopeptidase; NO, nitric oxide; NPR, natriuretic peptide receptor; pGC, particulate guanylyl cyclase; PKG-I, cGMP-dependent protein kinase subtype I; sGC, soluble guanylyl cyclase

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The natriuretic peptide family consists of a number of structurally homologous but genetically distinct polypeptide mediators. The peptides are highly conserved across mammalian and invertebrate species and, in humans, are released from various tissues in response to physiological and pathological stimuli. All the peptides have at their core a 17-amino acid disulfide ring essential for receptor recognition and biological function.

The first description of secretory granules in the cardiac atria was given in 1956, to be followed by the physiological characterisation of an atrial natriuretic factor in the work of de Bold and colleagues in 1981.¹ Several further natriuretic peptides have subsequently been identified. These include B type natriuretic peptide (BNP) predominantly from ventricular myocardium (although originally isolated from pig brain)² and C type natriuretic peptide (CNP) expressed in the nervous system and endothelial cells.³ A homologue of the natriuretic factor, DNP, in the venom of the green mamba Dendroaspis . . . [Full text of this article]

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