BACKGROUND Heart failure in women increases around the time of menopause when high-fat diets may result in obesity. The heart produces brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), also known as B-type natriuretic peptide. This aims of this study were to assess cardiac hypertrophy and BNP levels in ovariectomized rats fed a high-fat diet. MATERIAL AND METHODS Forty-eight female Wistar rats were divided into...

Natriuretic peptides and the reninangiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) have reciprocal effects at multiple sites and in varied situations. They interact in health and cardiovascular disease to influence renal, endocrine, and haemodynamic function and cardiovascular cell growth. The atrial natriuretic peptide (atrial natriuretic factor, ANF) discovered by De Bold in 19811 was cloned and sequenc...

The cardiac natriuretic peptides, ANP (atrial natriuretic peptide) and BNP (brain natriuretic peptide), are secreted by the heart in proportion to cardiac transmural pressures. They possess a wide range of effects in multiple tissues facilitating overall pressure/volume homoeostasis. The close relationship between plasma concentrations of these peptides and 'cardiac load' has led to their use a...

Although B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has been used for the diagnosis of congestive heart failure in many clinical settings, its diagnostic role in critically ill patients remains uncertain. The body of literature suggests that BNP and N-terminal pro-BNP levels are not useful for the diagnosis of systolic or diastolic heart failure in the critically ill, including in patients with brain hem...

INTRODUCTION The relationships between plasma levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and severity and location of stroke, prognosis, and infarct volume were investigated in acute ischemic stroke patients who presented within the first 24 hours (h) of stroke. MATERIAL AND METHODS Brain natriuretic peptide levels were tested in 40 patients and 30 healthy controls. Infarct volume was automati...

BACKGROUND The compensatory actions of the endogenous natriuretic peptide system require adequate processing of natriuretic peptide pro‐hormones into biologically active, carboxyl‐terminal fragments. Natriuretic peptide pro‐peptide processing is accomplished by corin, a transmembrane serine protease expressed by cardiomyocytes. Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) processing is inadequate in advance...

A hallmark of overt congestive heart failure (CHF) is attenuated cGMP production by endogenous atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) with renal resistance to ANP. ANP and brain natriuretic peptides (BNP) are of myocardial origin, whereas urodilatin (Uro) is thought to be derived from kidney. All three peptides are agonists to the natriuretic peptide-A receptor. Our objective was to compare the cardi...

This study evaluated the relationship between natriuretic peptide levels and a wide range of echocardiography parameters in a population of thirty-three patients with poorly regulated type 2 diabetes, and no known heart failure. Natriuretic peptides brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal prohormone BNP (NT-proBNP) were measured. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed and cardiac v...

B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) decreases cardiac preload and hypertrophy. As such, synthetic BNP, nesiritide, was approved for the treatment of acutely decompensated heart failure. However, two problems limit its therapeutic potential. First, ensuing hypertension decreases urine output, and second, guanylyl cyclase-A (GC-A), the primary signaling receptor for BNP, is down-regulated in heart f...

PURPOSE To characterize the cellular expression patterns of antiangiogenic factors differentially regulated in the fetal human macula. METHODS RNA was extracted from macular, nasal, and surround biopsies of three human fetal retinas at midgestation. Relative levels of expression of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), collagen type IValpha2 (COL4A2), and ...