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Circadian Profile of Plasma Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide in Healthy Man^*

Endocrinology Section, Institute of Internal Medicine, University of Ferrara, and Department of Nuclear Medicine S. Anna Hospital, 1-44100 Ferrara, Italy

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Prof. E. C. degli Uberti, M.D., Endocrinology Section, Institute of Internal Medicine, University of Ferrara, via Savonarola 9,1-44100 Ferrara, Italy.

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is known to exert potent cardiovascular effects and is presumed to participate in the neural control of circulation and blood flow. It has been assayed in many physiological and disease conditions, yet virtually nothing is known of the normal fluctuations in its circulating levels. We have studied the variability throughout a 24-h period of plasma concentrations of CGRP in eight recumbent healthy volunteers (four men and four women, 25–37 yr old), after careful standardization of their daily diet and routine schedules. A correlation with the circadian rhythms of blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and plasma aldosterone (PA), PRA, plasma cortisol (PC), and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) was also made.

Plasma CGRP concentrations ranged from a mean peak value of 18.1 ± 1.5 pmol/L to a mean lowest value of 11.7 ± 0.4 pmol/L (P < 0.05). The mean circadian acrophase of CGRP (calculated by cosinor analysis to occur at 2314 h) anticipated the corresponding acrophases of the other hormones (0122, 0528, 0809, and 0840 h for ANP, PRA, PA, and PC, respectively). Instead, BP and HR rhythms seemed to be antiphasic with the ANP rhythm (calculated acrophases occurred at 1356,1339, and 1314 h for systolic BP, diastolic BP, and HR, respectively).

Our data demonstrate that, like many other hormones, CGRP circulates in plasma with a circadian rhythm. There seems to be a temporal sequence starting with the nocturnal rise in plasma CGRP concentrations and progressing with the ensuing elevations of ANP, PRA, PA, and PC, whereas BP and HR are kept to their lowest values. These findings are in favor of a physiological role of CGRP in the complex regulation of BP homeostasis.

^* This work has been supported by grant no. 91.00214.PF41. from the Italian National Research Council (CNR, Rome, Italy): "Prevention and Control of Disease Factors". Subproject "Stress".

Received December 18, 1990.

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