ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the descriptive information about the various hormones and normal endocrine homeostatic interactions that rely on the rat as a representative mammalian species. Although various interspecies disparities do exist, rodents have been commonly employed as valued model systems for describing endocrine functions and interrelationships, which in the main hold true for other mammals. Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) are hormonal factors that serve important functions in the regulation of cardiovascular homeostasis, causing both arterial and venous dilatation that serves to control blood pressure and extracellular fluid volume. Leptin is now known to have various roles that encompass the regulation of energy balance, conveying information to the hypothalamus about energy stores, acting as a permissive factor for puberty, being involved as a satiety hormone in the attenuation of food intake, and interacting with other hormonal metabolic regulators as insulin, glucagon, cholecystokinin, POMC, GH, and IGF-1.
