Endocrine Abstracts

C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) represents a key paracrine member of the natriuretic peptide family that play an important role in the regulation of vascular tone and local blood flow. CNP is found abundantly in vascular endothelial cells and it is now clear that CNP can be released from the endothelium to act on adjacent cells, both in the vessel wall and the circulation. Thus, it has been shown that CNP hyperpolarises and dilates vascular smooth muscle in the mammalian resi...