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Experimental Studies |
Department of Anatomy (P.G.A., G.N., L.K.M., G.G., G.G.N.), Urology (T.P.G.), and Clinical and Experimental Medicine (G.P.R.), University of Padua, 35121 Padua, Italy
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Prof. Gastone G. Nussdorfer, Department of Anatomy, Via Gabelli 65, I-35121 PADOVA, Italy. E-mail: ggnanat{at}ipdunidx.unipd.it
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Like other regulatory peptides contained in adrenal medulla (for review, see Ref.2), ADM affects the secretory activity of the adrenal cortex in the rat. It was found to specifically inhibit angiotensin-II (ANG-II)-stimulated aldosterone secretion of dispersed zona glomerulosa cells (4, 5), and in vivo, to lower aldosterone plasma concentration in sodium-depleted or bilaterally nephrectomized animals (6). However, using in situ perfused rat adrenals, Mazzocchi et al. (7) showed that ADM enhances aldosterone release through a mechanism that cannot completely be accounted for by the increase in the flow rate of the perfusion medium.
Investigations of the effects of ADM on steroid secretion in humans are not yet available. Therefore, it seemed worthwhile to examine whether in vitro ADM affects the secretory activity of human adrenal glands.
| Materials and Methods |
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Adrenal slices and dispersed cells obtained from each gland were placed in medium 199 (Difco, Detroit, MI) and Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate buffer with 0.2% glucose, containing 5 mg/mL human serum albumin, and incubated (810 mg/mL or 3 x 105 cells/mL, in replicates of five each) as follows: 1) human ADM152 (from 10-1010-5 mol/L) alone or in the presence of 10-9 mol/L ACTH or ANG-II; 2) 10-5 mol/L CGRP837 alone (adrenal slices) or with 10-9 mol/L ANG-II (dispersed cells) in the presence or absence of 10-6 mol/L ADM152; 3) 10-6 mol/L ADM152 in the presence or absence of 10-5 mol/L A23187; and 4) 10-6 mol/L l-alprenolol in the presence or absence of 10-7 mol/L isoprenaline or ADM152 (adrenal slices). ADM152, the CGRP1 receptor antagonist CGRP837 (5), ACTH, and ANG-II were purchased from Peninsula Labs (Merseyside, UK); the Ca2+ ionophore A23187 and the ß-adrenoceptor agonist isoprenaline and antagonist l-alprenolol were obtained from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO). The incubation was carried out for 90 min in a shaking bath at 37 C in an atmosphere of 95% O25% CO2. The medium was collected and kept frozen at -80 C until hormonal assays.
Aldosterone and cortisol were extracted from the incubation media and purified by high-pressure liquid chromatography, as described previously (8). Their concentrations were measured by RIA, using commercial kits purchased from IRE-Sorin [Vercelli, Italy; ALDO-CTK2 kit: sensitivity, 5 pg/mL; cross-reactivity: aldosterone, 100%; 17-iso-aldosterone and other steroids (including 18OH-corticosterone), <0.1%; intra- and interassay variations, 7.1% and 8.5%. Cortisol-RIA kit: sensitivity, 30 pg/mL; cross-reactivity: cortisol, 100%; 11-deoxycortisol, 4.8%; corticosterone, 3%; progesterone, 0.5%; 11-deoxycorticosterone, 0.02%; other steroids, <0.01%; intra- and interassay variations, 6.2% and 7.4%]. The concentration of epinephrine and norepinephrine in the incubation medium was measured, without previous allumina purification and concentration, by high-pressure liquid chromatography using a reverse phase column (150 x 4 mm; BioSil ODS 5S, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, CA) and a glassy carbon electrochemical detector (TL-5, Bioanalytical Systems, Lafayette, IN), as detailed earlier (8). Epinephrine and norepinephrine were about 50% each of the total yield, and the sensitivity of the assay was approximately 3 pmol/L. The intraassay variation coefficient was 7%.
Data obtained from each adrenal gland were averaged and expressed as the mean ± SEM of three separate experiments (three adrenals from three patients). The statistical comparison of results was performed using ANOVA, followed by the multiple range test of Duncan.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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The complementary DNA for an ADM receptor has been cloned from rat lung tissue (10), and an orphan receptor gene has been identified, encoding a common CGRP1 receptor for both CGRP and ADM (11). Accordingly, evidence indicates that ADM competitively binds to CGRP receptors (12) and that the hypotensive effect of ADM in rats is, at least in part, mediated by CGRP1 receptors (13). The present study shows that both the direct and indirect effects of ADM on adrenal aldosterone secretion are abrogated by CGRP837, thereby suggesting that, not only in rats (5, 7), but also in humans, they are mediated by the type 1 of CGRP receptors.
The direct inhibitory effect of ADM on ANG-II-stimulated aldosterone secretion conceivably involves the blockade of Ca2+ influx into human adrenocortical cells. In fact, ADM completely suppresses the aldosterone secretagogue action of the potent Ca2+ ionophore A23187 on dispersed cells. However, it only partially counteracts the stimulatory effect of ANG-II on adrenocortical cells, which involves the receptor-mediated activation of phospholipase C and thereby raises cytosolic Ca2+ concentration by increasing both Ca2+ influx and Ca2+ release from intracellular stores (for review, see Ref.14). In agreement with this contention, preliminary data (not shown) indicate that ADM is able to suppress the aldosterone response of dispersed human adrenocortical cells to K+, whose mechanism of action exclusively involves the opening of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (for review, see Ref.14). Obviously, these considerations easily may explain why ADM does not directly affect either basal secretion of dispersed cells or their aldosterone response to ACTH, which is relatively Ca2+-independent (for review, see Ref.14). It must be mentioned that our adrenal preparations respond to ANG-II also by raising their cortisol secretion, a finding in keeping with the presence of ANG-II receptors in human zona fasciculata-reticularis cells (15). The presence of functional specific receptors (of the CGRP1 subtype) for ADM in human zona glomerulosa, but not zona fasciculata-reticularis cells, could explain why ADM affects aldosterone, but not cortisol, response to ANG-II.
Our results strongly suggest that the indirect stimulatory effect of ADM on human adrenal aldosterone secretion is likely to be mediated by the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine by chromaffin cells contained in adrenal slices. Compelling evidence indicates that ß-adrenoceptor agonists are able to enhance adrenal steroidogenesis in mammals, zona glomerulosa and mineralocorticoid secretion being their main targets in rodents, bovines, and humans (for review, see Ref.2). Moreover, proofs are available that other intramedullary regulatory peptides, like pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide (in humans and rats) and vasoactive intestinal peptide and neuropeptide Y (in rats), stimulate zona glomerulosa secretion through this indirect paracrine mechanism (for review, see Ref.2). The contention that ADM may be included in this group of regulatory peptides is supported by the following lines of evidence: 1) l-alprenolol, a specific ß1-receptor antagonist, abolishes the aldosterone response of human adrenal slices, not only to the most potent ß-receptor agonist isoprenaline (16) but also to ADM; and 2) ADM elicits a sizable catecholamine release by slices of the adrenal head including medullary tissue.
Our present demonstration that ADM is able to enhance aldosterone secretion in humans when the structural integrity of adrenal glands is preserved seems to be in contrast with earlier findings obtained in vivo in rats by Yamaguchi et al. (6); these investigators observed that sc-administered ADM decreases plasma aldosterone concentration in sodium-depleted or bilaterally nephrectomized rats. Apart from the obvious interspecific differences and the fact that aldosterone plasma level is the result of the balance between the rates of its production and metabolic clearance, it must be noted that it is always difficult to unequivocally interpret in vivo findings. In fact, ADM might have systemically affected other extraadrenal mechanisms involved in the regulation of adrenocortical secretion. For instance, ADM evokes a small reduction in plasma renin concentration (and conceivably ANG-II production) in sodium-depleted rats (6) and inhibits pituitary ACTH release in sheep and rats (17, 18). Accordingly, when ADM is directly and exclusively delivered to rat adrenal gland in in situ perfusion models, it seems not to depress, but to enhance aldosterone release (7).
In conclusion, our study shows that ADM exerts various effects on aldosterone secretion in humans. At micromolar concentrations, ADM, via specific receptors, directly inhibits aldosterone production elicited by those agonists that increase intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Concurrently, at nanomolar concentration, it indirectly stimulates aldosterone secretion by a mechanism involving epinephrine and norepinephrine release by chromaffin cells. The level of circulating ADM in humans is about 3 x 10-12 mol/L under basal conditions; however, even under pathological conditions, it does not exceed 1 x 10-11 mol/L (19, 20), thereby making unlikely the possibility that the peptide may act on adrenals as a true circulating hormone. Conversely, ADM content in human adrenal medulla averages 50 fmol/g fresh tissue (21): hence, upon maximal stimulation of its release, it could reach an intraadrenal concentration of about 10-8/10-7 mol/L and therefore act as a paracrine regulatory peptide (2). In a recent review, Schell et al. (22) described ADM as a hormone mainly controlling the kidney excretion of water and electrolyte. Furthermore, increased plasma ADM levels have been reported in patients with arterial hypertension, where they were inversely correlated with GFR (23), and in congestive heart failure, where they were directly correlated with NYHA functional class (24). In this latter condition, a 4-fold increase of ADM plasma levels was likely to be caused not only by enhanced adrenal, but also by extraadrenal synthesis of the peptide in the heart. Hence, the dose-dependent biphasic paracrine effect of ADM on aldosterone secretion identified in this study might be of major relevance under pathophysiological conditions where a resetting of fluid and electrolyte homeostasis occurs.
Received October 21, 1996.
Revised December 3, 1996.
Accepted December 16, 1996.
| References |
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-hydroxylase and
3ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase messenger ribonucleic acid and
proteins and on steroidogenic responsiveness to corticotropin and
angiotensin II. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 78:12121219.[Abstract]
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