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Atrial Natriuretic Peptide in Umbilical Cord Blood: Evidence for a Circulating Hormone in Human Fetus

Third Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo Hongo, Tokyo 113;
the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Showa University School of Medicine,Hatanodai Tokyo 142 Japan

Address requests for reprints to: T.Yamaji, M.D., Third Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113,Japan.

To determine whether atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a circulating hormone in thehuman fetus, ANP levels in umbilical cord plasma obtained at the time of delivery in 10 normal infants were measured by RIA. Plasma ANP levels were consistently higher in paired umbilical cord arterial than in cord venous samples. The mean umbilical cord arterial plasma ANP concentration [283µ56 (µSEM) pg/ml] was significantly higher than that in cord venous plasma (165µ 27 pg/ml) or maternal peripheral venous plasma (155µ 25pg/ml). Analyses by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography revealed that the elution pattern of plasma ANP in cord arterial blood and that in maternal venous blood were nearly identical and that the retention time of the main ANP peak coincided with that of -human ANP. These results suggest that -human ANP is a circulating hormone in the human fetus.

Received March 26, 1986.