Down-regulation of atrial natriuretic peptide receptor and cyclic GMP response in cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells.

Treatment of cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells with human atrial natriuretic peptide (hANP) or Met(O)12hANP caused a similar and marked reduction (approximately 80%) of ANP receptor number (down-regulation). A second challenge with hANP stimulated the accumulation of intracellular cGMP in the down-regulated cells to the same extent as in control cells. These data suggest that ANP receptor sites are functionally heterogenous, the more abundant site being uncoupled from guanylate cyclase but susceptible to down-regulation.