Figure 6. BNP treatment increases cGMP level and activates the protein Kinase G and the p38 MAP kinase.

(A) cGMP levels were measured in the non myocyte cell supernatants (n = 4–7) and in the EDTA treated plasma of mice (n = 4 mice per group) 1h after BNP or CNP treatment (1 μM). (B) Representative western blots of sorted Sca-1^high+ cells isolated from B6⁺ neonatal hearts and stimulated with or without BNP or CNP (1 μM both). Blots were stained with antibodies against phospho phospholamban (pPLB), phospholamban (PBL), phospho p38 (pp38), p38 and Tubulin (used as loading control). Only the bands at the adequate molecular weight were represented here: tubulin 55 kDa, pp38 and p38 about 43 kDa, pPLB between 21 and 26 kDa and PLB 25 kDa. (C) Quantification of the data from western blot analysis expressed relatively to the average of untreated cells. Sorted Sca-1^high+ cells were or not treated 1h with BNP or CNP. n = 4–6 different experiments. All the results are means ± SEM, *p < 0.05 versus untreated cells.