The evidence for the existence of an endogenous factor with digitalis activity in mammals: a physiological regulator of the sodium pump?
Castañeda-Hernández, G.
Archivos del Instituto de Cardiologia de Mexico 61(5): 491-500
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0020-3785 PMID: 1663331 Document Number: 381656
In the last years a great deal of reports on the presence of endogenous digitalis-like activity in mammals have appeared in the literature. The active factor could be an endogenous ligand of the digitalis receptor and thus a physiological humoral regulator of sodium pump activity. Such an agent would necessary have a whole series of physiological and physiopathological implications. It has been proposed that the factor is a natriuretic hormone, that it participates in blood pressure regulation and in the genesis of arterial hypertension, that it plays a role in pregnancy and that it regulates cardiac contractility. These hypotheses are discussed in the present review.