Atrial natriuretic factor stimulates the frog urinary bladder osmotic permeability in presence of a cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase inhibitor

The role of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) in regulation of osmotic water permeability was studied in isolated frog Rana temporaria L. urinary bladder. It was found that ANF (rANF, 1-28) added to the serosal solution at concentrations 5 x 10(-8) M and higher dosedependently stimulated the arginine-vasotocin (AVT)-induced increase of osmotic water permeability. The effect of ANF was revealed only in presence of 3-isobuthyl-1-methylxantine (180 microM) and was accompanied by significant elevation of cGMP level in urinary bladder homogenate and isolated mucosal epithelial cells. C-ANF (desGln18, Ser19, Gly20, Leu21, Gly22]-ANF-(4-23)-NH2), a specific agonist of NPR-C receptor, exerted no effect on osmotic water permeability. ANF induced a significant increase of cAMP in urinary bladder homogenates (AVT, 5 x 10(-11) M: 52.3 +/- 10.6; AVT + ANF, 10(-7) M: 114.2 +/- 26.9 pmol/mg protein, n = 5, p < 0.05). The activity of adenylate cyclase in crude plasmatic membrane fraction was not changed. Milrinone, a specific inhibitor of phosphodiesterase 3, at concentrations from 25 to 80 microM, enhanced both the hydroosmotic response to AVT and AVT-stimulated cAMP production. Altogether these data demonstrate that, in the frog urinary bladder, ANF stimulates the AVT-induced increase of osmotic water permeability acting probably through NPR-A receptor-coupled mobilization of cGMP and cGMP-dependent inhibition of phosphodiesterase 3.