γ2‐MSH in congestive heart failure: relation to atrial natriuretic peptide, arginine vasopressin and catecholamines

Abstract

A possible role of the proopiomelanocortin derived peptide .gamma.2-melanocyte stimulating hormone (.gamma.2-MSH) has been studied in patients with various degrees of congestive heart failure (CHF). The profile of changes in circulating levels of .gamma.2-MSH-like immunoreactivity (-LI) has been compared with those of artrial natriuretic peptide (ANP)-LI arginine vasopression (AVP)-LI and catecholamines in CHF. Patients with moderate CHF (New York Heart Association stages I-II) showed significantly higher levels of h-.alpha.ANP-LI and NA (P < 0.05) compared to controls. Patients with severe CHF (stages III-IV) had significantly higher levels of all hormones measured compared to controls: noradrenaline, P < 0.001; adrenaline, P < 0.001; .gamma.1-MSH-LI, P < 0.001; h-.alpha.ANP-LI, P < 0.05; AVP-LI, P < 0.001. For the catecholamines and .gamma.2-MSH-LI there was a significant increase from moderate to severe forms of CHF. A significant correlation was observed between .gamma.2-MSH-LI and noradrenaline, and between h-.alpha.ANP-LI and noradrenaline in patients with CHF. The present results show that .gamma.2-MSH-LI is increased only in severe forms of cardiac failure, and that this change is more closely related to the increase in circulating levels of noradrenaline than to increased levels of ANP-LI or AVP-LI.