Corin is a type II transmembrane serine protease abundantly expressed in the heart. In a previous study using transfected 293 cells, we showed that corin converted pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (pro-ANP) to atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), suggesting that corin is likely the pro-ANP convertase. Because other serine proteases such as thrombin and kallikrein had previously also been shown to cleave pro-ANP in vitro, it remained to demonstrate that corin is indeed the endogenous pro-ANP convertase in cardiomyocytes. In this study, we examined pro-ANP processing in a murine cardiac muscle cell line, HL-5. Northern analysis showed that corin mRNA was present in HL-5 cells. In HL-5 cells transfected with a plasmid expressing pro-ANP, recombinant pro-ANP was converted to mature ANP as determined by Western analysis, indicating the presence of the endogenous pro-ANP convertase in these cells. The processed recombinant ANP was shown to be active in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based cGMP assay in baby hamster kidney cells. The processing of recombinant pro-ANP in HL-5 cells was highly sequence-specific, because mutation R98A, but not mutations R101A and R102A, in pro-ANP prevented the conversion of pro-ANP to ANP. Expression of recombinant wild-type corin enhanced the processing of pro-ANP in HL-5 cells. In contrast, overexpression of active site mutant corm S985A or transfection of oligonucleotide small interfering RNA duplexes directed against the mouse corin gene completely inhibited the processing of recombinant pro-ANP in HL-5 cells. These results indicate that corin is the physiological pro-ANP convertase in cardiac myocytes.
