Evidence that urodilatin, rather than ANP, regulates renal sodium excretion

Urodilatin, a closely related member of the atrial peptide family, was discovered recently in human urine. Urodilatin (ANP 95-126) is believed to be produced within the kidney and is natriuretic; evidence indicates that most of the ANP-like immunoreactivity in the kidney elutes with urodilatin rather than with ANP. Moreover, urodilatin is little affected by renal enzymes that inactivate atriopeptin. To determine the relative importance of urodilatin versus ANP in the regulation of renal sodium excretion, we studied intact and cardiac-denervated conscious dogs under three experimental conditions: (1) spontaneous sodium excretion, (2) intravenous infusion of saline, and (3) left atrial distension. Urodilatin was measured in urine with a newly developed radioimmunoassay that selectively measures urodilatin without any cross-reactivity with alpha-human atrial natriuretic peptide (alpha-hANP); alpha-hANP was measured in plasma by radio-immunoassay because it is rapidly inactivated in the kidney by enzymatic activity. In each group of experiments, sodium excretion correlated better with urodilatin than it did with circulating alpha-hANP. The correlation coefficient (r value) between urodilatin excretion and renal sodium excretion exceeded 0.8 in 13 of 18 experiments and was below 0.6 in only 2 experiments. On the other hand, the correlation between circulating atriopeptin and sodium excretion exceeded 0.8 in only 3 of 18 experiments and was below 0.6 in 10 experiments. A negative correlation between plasma atriopeptin and renal sodium excretion was observed during left atrial distension in the cardiac-denervated dogs. These results and other considerations suggest that urodilatin, rather than atriopeptin, is the member of the ANP family that is primarily involved in the regulation of renal sodium excretion.