Trout vascular and renal responses to atrial natriuretic factor and heart extracts

Dorsal aortic pressure (DAP), urine flow rate, and urinary K+, Na+, and Cl- were monitored in chronically catheterized unanesthetized rainbow trout before and after injection of saline, tissue extracts, or synthetic (rat, Ile-26) atrial natriuretic factor (ANF). Synthetic ANF (1.0 and 10.0 micrograms/kg body wt) and extracts from trout atria and ventricles increased DAP, urine flow rate, and electrolyte excretion. Saline, skeletal muscle extracts, and 0.1 microgram/kg body wt synthetic ANF had no effect on DAP and only minor effects on renal water and ion excretion. The slow-onset long-duration pressor response to ANF and heart extracts contrasted with a rapid short-acting pressor effect of epinephrine. Synthetic ANF (10 micrograms/kg body wt) and ventricular extracts produced marked increases in Na+ and Cl- excretion but only a mild diuresis. Much of the increase in urine flow rate appears to be due to solvent injection. These results show that trout hearts contain an ANF-like material and that mammalian and piscine ANF produce hemodynamic and renal effects upon intra-arterial injection.