Cardiac accumulation of 125I-labeled monoclonal antibody to atrial natriuretic peptide in a rat model of myocardial infarction.
Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) may be an important factor in myocardial infarction and subsequent congestive heart failure. In the failing heart, ANP is expressed in both the atrium and the ventricle. ANP has now been localized with 125I-labeled monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) in vivo in a rat model of myocardial infarction. Myocardial infarction was produced in 3-month-old Wistar rats by ligating the left anterior coronary artery. Two MAbs to rat alpha-ANP accumulated in the infarcted left ventricles of treated rats to a significantly greater extent (p < 0.01) than in the noninfarcted left ventricles of control rats. However, an irrelevant MAb also accumulated to a significantly greater extent in infarcted myocardium than in control myocardium. Thus, the accumulation of the two MAbs to ANP in infarcted tissue seems to be nonspecific and may be due to increased permeability of the injured myocardium.