Expression, release, and biological activity of parathyroid hormone-related peptide from coronary endothelial cells

Ventricular cardiomyocytes have previously been identified as potential target cells for parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP). Synthetic PTHrP peptides exert a positive contractile effect. Because systemic PTHrP levels are normally negligible, this suggests that PTHrP is expressed in the ventricle and acts as a paracrine mediator. We investigated the ventricular expression of PTHrP and its expression in cultured cells isolated from the ventricle, studied the release of PTHrP from hearts and cultures, and investigated whether this authentic PTHrP mimics the biological effects previously described for synthetic PTHrP on ventricular cardiomyocytes. We found PTHrP expressed in ventricles of neonatal and adult rat hearts. In cells isolated from adult hearts, we found PTHrP expression exclusively in coronary endothelial cells but not in cardiomyocytes. The latter, however, are target cells for PTHrP. PTHrP was released from isolated perfused hearts during hypoxic perfusion and from cultured coronary endothelial cells under energy-depleting conditions. This PTHrP was biologically active; ie, it exerted a positive contractile and lusitropic effect on cardiomyocytes. Authentic PTHrP was glycosylated and showed a slightly higher potency than synthetic PTHrP. These results suggest that PTHrP is an endothelium-derived modulator of ventricular function.