The neutral endopeptidase 24.11 (NEP) also called 'enkephalinase' thanks to its inactivation of enkephalins in the brain, was also recently shown to be involved in the degradation of the circulating atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP). Inhibitors of NEP are therefore under clinical trials as new analgesics or antidiarrheal agents, protecting centrally or peripherally released opioid peptides and as novel antidiuretics and anti-hypertensives in prolonging the renal and vascular actions of NEP. It was therefore important from a clinical point of view to investigate the distribution in peripheral tissue of a systemically administered NEP blocker. Different concentrations of the radiolabelled inhibitor [H-3]HACBO-Gly have been intravenously injected in rat and the distribution studied using whole-body sections at different times by 'ex vivo' and 'in vitro' autoradiography to investigate differences in tissue accessibility of NEP to a circulating inhibitor. In vivo [H-3]HACBO-Gly binding was fully prevented by an excess of unlabelled inhibitor and disappeared rapidly mainly through renal elimination. NEP labelling was prominent in kidney, liver, lung, fat deposits in the neck region, the flat bones of the skull, the mandibula, the vertebrae, the long bones of the limbs, articular cartilages and synoviae. A lower labelling was found in the intestine, the glomeruli and the submaxillary glands. [H-3]HACBO-Gly binds also to a limited number of peripheral tissues in which the presence of NEP was yet unknown (bones, parts of adipose tissue). Some tissues, not labelled in vivo, exhibited various degrees of labelling under in vitro conditions (the brain, some portions of the gut, the testes, the prostate). Interestingly, few lobules of the submaxillary glands were much more densely labelled suggesting the possible occurrence of NEP heterogeneity. Except for the brain, the physiological function of NEP in various tissues remains largely unknown, but this ectoenzyme is likely involved in inactivation of regulatory peptides such as: ANP (partially in the kidney), SP in the lung and possibly somatostatin and ANP in bone, ANP in adipose tissue, enkephalin in testes, immune peptidic factors in bone marrow. A part of NEP in bone marrow corresponds probably to the common acute lymphoblastic antigen, CALLA, densely expressed on pre-B cells. Finally, it is important to notice that several tissues containing important concentrations of NEP (brain, testes, prostate, eye, gut, brush border) are inaccessible to the i.v. injected inhibitor thanks to the presence of functional barriers.
