Abstract
There is evidence that atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) has an action in the inner medullary collecting duct. In addition, the prehypertensive Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rat has an intrinsic tendency toward less natriuresis than the Dahl salt-resistant (R) rat has when challenged with ANF. To test the hypothesis that renal papillary collecting tubule cells from prehypertensive S rats might be genetically less responsive to ANF, S and R cells were grown in culture and studied for responsiveness to ANF by measurement of cyclic nucleotide responses. There was a concentration-dependent effect of ANF on renal papillary collecting tubule cell synthesis of intracellular cyclic guanosine 3'',5''-monophosphate (cGMP) in both strains. However, the S cells were hyporesponsive compared with the R cells (p < 0.002, by analysis of variance). Likewise, in response to Na nitroprusside, the S cells were hyporesponsive compared with the R cells as measured by intracellular cGMP accumulation (p < 0.03, by analysis of variance). Arginine vasopressin stimulated intracellular cAMP equally in both strains. Also, ANF equally enhanced intracellular cGMP in glomerular mesangial cells from S and R rats, indicating possible specificity of the reduced responsiveness to ANF to the distal nephron of S rats. Plasma ANF levels had a slight tendency to be higher in prehypertensive S rats than in R rats (p = 0.088, by t test). These results suggest that the papillary collecting duct of Dahl S and R rats may differ in guanylate cyclase activity. This difference may partially explain the impaired natriuretic responses of S rats and could represent a factor contributing to the development of salt-sensitive hypertension.