Dexamethasone-induced Up-regulation of Adrenomedullin and Atrial Natriuretic Peptide Genes in Cultured Rat Ventricular Myocytes

To determine whether adrenomedullin (AM), a novel 51-residue vasodilator peptide originally isolated from human pheochromocytoma, is expressed by the heart, and whether the expression of cardiac AM gene is regulated by glucocorticoids, the effect of dexamethasone (DEX) on the expression of protein and mRNA of AM and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) was tested in cultured ventricular myocytes prepared from the neonatal rats. Northern blot analysis of rat ventricular myocytes with cDNAs for rat AM and ANP as probes revealed distinct bands corresponding to the sizes of rat AM mRNA (1.6 kb) and rat ANP mRNA (1 kb), respectively. Dexamethasone increased steady-state levels of both AM and ANP mRNA as well as secretion of both AM and ANP immunoreactivity in a time- and dose-dependent manner. The stimulatory effects of dexamethasone were completely abolished by a glucocorticoid antagonist (RU38486) and a RNA synthesis inhibitor (actinomycin D). The approximate half-lives of basal and dexamethasone-induced AM mRNA were about 4 h, suggesting that dexamethasone-induced up-regulation of AM mRNA was unlikely due to its decreased degradation. These data suggest that glucocorticoids directly stimulate gene expression of AM as well as ANP in rat ventricular myocytes.