© 2001 by European Society of Cardiology
Copyright © 2000, European Society of Cardiology
Diuretic and antidiuretic hormones
aUniversitätsklinikum Münster, Medizinische Poliklinik, Experimentelle Nephrologie, Domagkstrasse 3a, 48149 Münster, Germany
bEmory University School of Medicine, Renal Division, 1639 Pierce Drive WMB 338, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-251-83-56991; +49-251-83-56973
Received 23 May 2001; accepted 29 May 2001
This focussed issue of Cardiovascular Research summarizes several review articles describing our up-to-date understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of diuretic and antidiuretic hormones together with new findings in several original reports. These diuretic and antidiuretic hormones comprise vasopressin, different members of the natriuretic peptide family, nitric oxide, and endothelin. The collection of reviews and original articles attempts to address questions from the molecular structure of these hormones and their receptors, their physiological and pathophysiological function, clinical implications, therapeutic use of mimetics and inhibitors to mutations in these molecules found in patients. The majority, especially of the review articles, focuses on the renal actions of these hormones and their importance for fluid homeostasis. A number of additional papers discusses their involvement and importance in cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology. The selection of these articles all from established experts in their field should provide clinicians with recent experiences in using these hormones and their antagonists in patient care and their possible future potential as well as researchers with a profound description of their molecular, physiological and pathophysiological properties.
In the reviews by Bankir, Wong and Verbalis, Palm et al., Birnbaumer, and Sagnella the latest information on the vasopressin receptors, especially the V2-receptor and their key function in controlling body fluid and osmotic balance in health and disease is described. While the first article gives detailed information on quantitative aspects of the antidiuretic action of vasopressin obtained from numerous studies of different laboratories, the other three articles describe defects in the vasopressin system. This includes pathological vasopressin secretion in the brain to mutations in the V2-receptor in the collecting duct of the kidney leading to the development of diabetes insipidus, hyponatremia or salt and volume retention with hypertension. These authors especially stress the recent advantages in developing and using V2-receptor antagonists for a successful treatment of these patients.
The next couple of reviews by Kone, Boomsma and van den Meiracker, Forssmann et al., and Buschhausen et al. introduce the natriuretic peptides again from the molecular biology to their specific renal actions and clinical implications. The article by Inoue et al. combines the physiological effects of both vasopressin and atrial natriuretic peptide in the collecting duct, the key nephron segment for the fine tuning of Na+ and water excretion via these hormones. Finally, Kotelevtsev and Webb present an attractive hypothesis for the paracrine action of endothelin mediated by nitric oxide in the renal medulla.
The second part of the reviews in this issue focuses on functions of the natriuretic peptide family and vasopressin in the cardiovascular system. This topic is introduced by the review of Suzuki et al. for the natriuretic peptides. The reviews by Kalra et al., Brunner-La Rocca et al., Geny et al., and Wenzel and Lindner describe the specific involvement of these hormones in situations of chronic heart failure, after heart transplantation, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation and vasodilatory shock.
Finally, a number of original articles describe various renal and cardiovascular aspects of the natriuretic peptides, their receptors, and endopeptidase inhibitors. These articles again cover new information from basic research to clinical use of these peptides.
We as guest editors of this focussed issue of Cardiovascular Research would like to thank all authors for contributing this fine collection of reviews and original articles. We believe that this issue summarizes several of the very promising developments in understanding the complicated interplay between the different members of these diuretic and antidiuretic hormones and their increasing and successful use in patient care. We hope that it will be of high interest to many readers from the basic researcher to the clinician.
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