Atrial natriuretic peptide suppresses endothelin gene expression and proliferation in cardiac fibroblasts through a GATA4-dependent mechanism.

AIMS Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a hormone that has both antihypertrophic and antifibrotic properties in the heart. We hypothesized that myocyte-derived ANP inhibits endothelin (ET) gene expression in fibroblasts. METHODS AND RESULTS We have investigated the mechanism(s) involved in the antiproliferative effect of ANP on cardiac fibroblasts in a cell culture model. We found that cardiac myocytes inhibited DNA synthesis in co-cultured cardiac fibroblasts as did treatment with the ET-1 antagonist BQ610. The effect of co-culture was reversed by antibody directed against ANP or the ANP receptor antagonist HS-142-1. ANP inhibited the expression of the ET-1 gene and ET-1 gene promoter activity in cultured fibroblasts. The site of the inhibition was localized to a GATA-binding site positioned between -132 and -135 upstream from the transcription start site. GATA4 expression was demonstrated in cardiac fibroblasts, GATA4 bound the ET-1 promoter both in vitro and in vivo, and siRNA-mediated knockdown of GATA4 inhibited ET-1 expression. ET-1 treatment resulted in increased levels of phospho-serine(105) GATA4 in cardiac fibroblasts and this induction was partially suppressed by co-treatment with ANP. CONCLUSION Collectively, these findings suggest that locally produced ET-1 serves as an autocrine stimulator of fibroblast proliferation, that ANP produced in neighbouring myocytes serves as a paracrine inhibitor of this proliferation, and that the latter effect operates through a reduction in GATA4 phosphorylation and coincident reduction in GATA4-dependent transcriptional activity.