Endocrine Abstracts

The heart not only has a mechanical function of pumping blood through vessels but also acts as an endocrine gland. In its endocrine function, the heart releases atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), a hormone of a large family of natriuretic peptides. ANP is secreted from cardiac atria as an inactive preprohormone. In post-translational modification, 25-amino acid signal sequence is cleaved from preprohormone to produce proANP of 126-amino acid, which is the major form of ANP stor...

Hypertension is associated with vascular changes characterized by endothelial dysfunction, increased vascular contraction, and arterial remodelling. Vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cells, which constitute bulk of vascular wall, are critically involved in these processes through their highly plastic and dynamic features and ability to undergo phenotypic differentiation. Stimulation of VSM cells by pro-hypertensive neurohumoral stimuli such as acetylcholine and norepinephrine, and ...

Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is a neurohormone, which regulates blood and extracellular fluid volume and hence blood pressure (BP). AVP has its chief action in kidneys where it reduces flow of urine, increases permeability of convoluted tubules of kidneys to water and its reabsorption. It binds to receptors on sweat glands and decreases water loss by perspiration from the skin. Also, AVP binds to peripheral arteriolar receptors, causing vasoconstriction and increase in BP. The s...

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) is an endocrine system within the body that is essential for regulation of blood pressure (BP) and fluid balance. The system is mainly comprised of three hormones renin, angiotensin II (Ang II) and aldosterone. The RAAS pathway is initiated in the kidney with the proteolytic conversion of liver derived angiotensinogen to angiotensin I (Ang I) by renin secreted by juxtaglomerular apparatus of the nephron. Ang I is cleaved by angio...