Vessel dilator
The mid-region piece of the ANP prohormone, a longer-lasting diuretic peptide studied by infusion in heart failure
The heart's atrial natriuretic peptide is made as a long prohormone that is cut into four pieces. Vessel dilator is the middle piece. Unlike the famous end-piece, atrial natriuretic peptide itself, which disappears from the blood in minutes, vessel dilator lasts almost two hours and circulates at much higher levels. Infused into people with heart failure it increased urine output several-fold and improved how the heart pumped. It is not an approved medicine, and the striking anticancer results reported for it come from animals and cell cultures, not people.
Used in human trials: 100 ng/kg/min, Continuous infusion, Intravenous (Study: congestive heart failure and healthy volunteers) Details ↓
Recommended Dosing
Used in human trials
No manufacturer dose exists for this use: these are amounts given in published trials, not recommendations.
What is it?
The heart makes atrial natriuretic peptide as a 126-amino-acid prohormone. When it is released, the prohormone is cut into four peptides: long-acting natriuretic peptide from residues 1 to 30, vessel dilator from 31 to 67, kaliuretic peptide from 79 to 98, and the well-known atrial natriuretic peptide itself from 99 to 126. Vessel dilator is the mid-region fragment, 37 residues long, and it was named for the vasodilation it produces.
Its defining property is that it lasts. In healthy people a one-hour infusion gave vessel dilator a plasma half-life of 107 minutes, against the roughly two and a half minutes of atrial natriuretic peptide, and the fragments circulate at levels fifteen to twenty-four times higher. Blood and serum experiments traced this to slower breakdown: vessel dilator's level did not fall for at least eight hours in plasma while atrial natriuretic peptide was gone within two.
Most human testing has been in heart failure. In people with class III congestive heart failure, a one-hour infusion of vessel dilator increased urine flow between two- and thirteen-fold and sodium excretion three- to four-fold, with the effect still present three hours after the infusion stopped. It also lowered vascular resistance and filling pressures while raising cardiac output. In a head-to-head study, vessel dilator kept these effects in heart failure while the related long-acting natriuretic peptide's effects were blunted. Combined with kaliuretic peptide it again raised urine flow, though not beyond each peptide alone.
In healthy volunteers the same family of peptides changes hormone levels: vessel dilator and its relatives lowered circulating CRH, ACTH and cortisol, and raised prostaglandin E2 several-fold. These were short research infusions measuring physiology, not treatments. Vessel dilator and the other proANP fragments are also measured as markers, in chronic heart failure, after a heart attack where a higher level tracked survival in a dog model, and in trained athletes, whose level of the fragment rose with endurance training.
A separate line of work, almost all from one laboratory, reports that vessel dilator kills cancer cells. In mice carrying human pancreatic, lung or breast tumours, vessel dilator given under the skin or by vein eliminated a share of the tumours, and in culture it was the most potent of the four prohormone peptides at reducing lung-cancer-cell number and DNA synthesis. These are animal and cell findings; vessel dilator has not been tested as a cancer treatment in people, and this entry does not present it as one.
Mechanism of Action
Vessel dilator is cut from the middle of the atrial natriuretic peptide prohormone and, like its sibling peptides, raises urine flow and sodium excretion, acting partly through cyclic GMP and prostaglandin E2, while lasting far longer in the blood than atrial natriuretic peptide.
Diuresis
Infused in heart failure it raised urine flow several-fold and improved pumping, effects that outlast the infusion.
Long half-life
It is broken down slowly, lasting about 107 minutes against ANP's 2.5 minutes.
Cancer cells (animal/cell only)
In mice and cultures it slows tumour-cell growth; this has not been tested in people.
Published Research
These are studies of vessel dilator itself (proANP 31-67), read from their PubMed abstracts: the human heart-failure infusions, the human pharmacokinetic and hormone studies, the proANP-fragment marker studies, and the animal and cell studies of diuresis and cancer. Cancer and acute-kidney-injury findings are in animals or cells and are labelled as such.
Strong diuresis in heart failure
In people with class III congestive heart failure, a one-hour intravenous infusion of vessel dilator (100 ng/kg/min) increased urine flow two- to thirteen-fold and sodium excretion three- to four-fold, still raised three hours later, while lowering vascular resistance and filling pressures and raising cardiac output by about a third.
Effects not blunted, unlike its sibling
In 17 patients with class III heart failure, vessel dilator increased urine flow more than fivefold and sodium excretion threefold, effects that persisted after the infusion, while the related long-acting natriuretic peptide's effects were diminished, partly because that peptide cleared faster in these patients.
Combined with kaliuretic peptide
Vessel dilator and kaliuretic peptide given together to patients with class III heart failure raised urine flow about 3.5-fold and sodium excretion up to 3.6-fold; the combined effect was not greater than each peptide produced on its own.
A half-life far longer than ANP's
After a one-hour infusion in healthy people, vessel dilator's plasma half-life was 107 minutes and long-acting natriuretic peptide's was 28 minutes, both far longer than atrial natriuretic peptide's 2.5 minutes, explaining why the two fragments circulate at much higher levels.
It lowers stress hormones
In 30 healthy people, vessel dilator and the other three proANP peptides each lowered circulating CRH, ACTH and cortisol substantially when infused at 100 ng/kg/min; vessel dilator cut CRH by 84%, with the effects lasting up to three hours.
It raises prostaglandin E2
In people with congestive heart failure, vessel dilator raised circulating prostaglandin E2 eightfold within the first 20 minutes of infusion, staying elevated after it stopped; the authors linked the known rise in prostaglandin E2 in heart failure partly to these peptides.
Why it lasts: slow breakdown in plasma
In human plasma and serum at body temperature, vessel dilator's level did not fall until after eight hours, while long-acting natriuretic peptide fell at two hours; the slow degradation helps explain the higher circulating levels and longer half-lives of these fragments.
A marker in chronic heart failure
In 16 patients with chronic heart failure and 16 healthy controls, mid-region and N-terminal proANP, which include the proANP(31-67) region, were far higher in the patients and correlated with brain natriuretic peptide and left atrial volume, supporting their use as follow-up markers.
Higher in endurance athletes
Using new assays for proANP(1-30) and proANP(31-67), the vessel-dilator fragment was higher in male endurance athletes (713 pmol/L) than in sedentary men (387 pmol/L), while the 1-30 fragment was similar between the groups; only the 31-67 fragment responded to training.
It tracks survival after a heart attack in dogs
In a dog model of acute myocardial infarction, vessel dilator and the other atrial peptides rose within six minutes of coronary occlusion and correlated with infarct and ischaemic area; vessel dilator was the only one whose level correlated with survival.
It rescues acute kidney injury in rats
In rats with established ischaemic acute renal failure, vessel dilator lowered blood urea and creatinine, reduced acute tubular necrosis to under 5%, and cut mortality from 88% to 14% compared with placebo-treated animals.
Pharmacokinetics under the skin
In rats, vessel dilator given as a subcutaneous infusion had a longer half-life and larger total exposure with slower clearance than a bolus by either route, leading the authors to favour subcutaneous infusion for the anticancer studies done in animals.
It shrinks human pancreatic tumours in mice
In mice carrying human pancreatic tumours, twice-weekly intravenous vessel dilator eliminated 33% of the tumours and slowed growth by 92% over four weeks, against a 64-fold tumour increase in untreated mice; atrial natriuretic peptide was less effective.
The most potent of the four at stopping lung-cancer cells
In human squamous lung-cancer cells, vessel dilator reduced cell number by 51% within 24 hours, more than the other three prohormone peptides, and cut DNA synthesis by 85%, an effect mediated partly through cyclic GMP, with no regrowth over the following three days.
Made recombinantly for study
Vessel dilator was produced in E. coli as a tagged trimer, cleaved to monomers and purified to about 90% homogeneity, with the sequence and anticancer activity confirmed, giving a route to larger amounts of the peptide for research.
Dosing Data
Vessel dilator is not an approved medicine. This is the research infusion used in the published human studies, as stated in their abstracts; it was not a treatment course.
Educational information, not medical advice. Each dose above is tagged with its source: an approved label, a published human study, animal data, or amounts reported by users. None is a recommendation for you. An unapproved compound has no established safe or effective human dose, and products sold for “research use only” are not made or tested for people. Talk to a doctor before acting on anything on this site, including before you start, stop or change any medicine or dose. Full medical disclaimer.
What a Buyer Needs to Know
What is sold, how it is mixed, stored and taken, and what is known about its safety, quality and legal status. Each part names its source. Where we have none, it says unknown.
What is sold
Unknown: we hold no label and no published test that says what forms or vial sizes Vessel dilator is sold in. A vial's own label is a seller's claim, not a source.
Mixing a vial: a worked example
No worked example: none of the doses on this page is a fixed amount in mg or mcg injected under the skin or into a muscle (the routes given are: intravenous). There is no home-mixing step to show. The reconstitution calculator does the arithmetic for any vial.
Source: the route and amount of each dose row in Dosing Data below.
Storage before and after mixing
Unknown: no label or published stability study on file says how to store Vessel dilator, before or after mixing. The mixing guide sets out the general rules, with their sources: keep a mixed vial in the fridge, and use it promptly, as the bacteriostatic water label says of any drug dissolved in it. The 28 days often quoted is the limit for an opened multiple-dose vial from a manufacturer, an outer limit set for sterility, not a time a mixed solution has been shown to keep. Nobody has published how long Vessel dilator stays intact once mixed.
How it is taken
As it was given in human studies: Intravenous (Continuous infusion; Study: congestive heart failure and healthy volunteers).
For injection technique, sites and needle disposal, see the mixing guide.
Source: Used in human trials: the route and frequency of each row in Dosing Data below.
What to expect, and when
How long it stays in the body: a half-life of about 107 minutes (plasma, one-hour infusion). After about five half-lives almost none is left.
How long the doses were given: Study: congestive heart failure and healthy volunteers: Over 1 hour.
When effects appear: unknown; no source on this page gives a time to effect for Vessel dilator. Results reported in the studies are under Published Research.
Source: half-life: PMID 9262321; Used in human trials, the duration of each row in Dosing Data below.
Side effects, and when to stop or get help
From the Side Effects section: A large, sustained diuresis and natriuresis, the intended effect, in heart failure (PMID 9711937); Lower stress hormones (CRH, ACTH, cortisol) and higher prostaglandin E2 during infusion (PMIDs 11549655, 10714891); No safety data beyond single one-hour infusions. Full list and cautions ↓
When to stop or get help: unknown; no label or trial on file sets rules for stopping Vessel dilator. Treat a severe or unexpected reaction as a reason to stop and see a doctor.
Source: the Side Effects section below (“From the short infusion studies above, which focused on diuretic and haemodynamic effects”).
Interactions
Unknown: a PubMed search for human interaction studies of Vessel dilator (reviewed 2026-10-30) found none. Unknown is not the same as safe to combine.
Every peptide's record, with its source: the interaction matrix.
Checking what you bought
Unknown: no published independent test of Vessel dilator products is in our lab-results database yet, so how products sold under this name measure up is not known.
To read a certificate of analysis, paste it into the COA decoder; it checks the measured mass against Vessel dilator's expected mass, 3,878.3 Da, from this entry's molecular data. Trust & Verification explains what independent testing can and cannot show.
Legal status
US: Research Chemical (Not an approved medicine anywhere in the sources read). Sport: Prohibited (S0 catch-all).
Country by country ↓ · Regulatory tracker
Source: this entry's approval status and the WADA Prohibited List, as in Legal Status below.
Side Effects & Contraindications
Reported Side Effects
From the short infusion studies above, which focused on diuretic and haemodynamic effects.
Contraindications & Cautions
No product label exists. These cautions follow from the evidence.
Legal Status
Vessel dilator is a research peptide; it is not approved as a medicine anywhere in the sources read.
Frequently Asked Questions
?What is vessel dilator?
A 37-amino-acid peptide cut from the middle of the atrial natriuretic peptide prohormone (residues 31 to 67). It is one of four peptides the prohormone yields.
?What does it do in heart failure?
Infused into people with heart failure it increased urine flow several-fold, improved how the heart pumped, and lowered filling pressures, with effects lasting hours after the infusion.
?Why does it last so much longer than ANP?
It is broken down slowly in blood, giving a half-life of about 107 minutes against the 2.5 minutes of atrial natriuretic peptide, so it circulates at much higher levels.
?Does vessel dilator treat cancer?
No. It slows tumour-cell growth in mice and in cell cultures, but it has not been tested as a cancer treatment in people, and it is not a cancer therapy.
?Is vessel dilator an approved drug?
No. It has no approval anywhere; it has been given to people only in short research infusions.
?Is it the same as nesiritide or carperitide?
No. Those are approved forms of other natriuretic peptides; vessel dilator is a different, unapproved fragment of the ANP prohormone.
References
- [clinical-trial] Vesely DL, et al. "Vessel dilator enhances sodium and water excretion and has beneficial hemodynamic effects in persons with congestive heart failure." Circulation, 1998;98(4):323-9. PMID: 9711937.
- [clinical-trial] Vesely DL, et al. "Comparison of vessel dilator and long-acting natriuretic peptide in the treatment of congestive heart failure." Am Heart J, 1999;138(4 Pt 1):625-32. PMID: 10502206.
- [clinical-trial] Patel H, et al. "Combined treatment with vessel dilator and kaliuretic hormone in persons with congestive heart failure." Exp Biol Med (Maywood), 2004;229(6):521-7. PMID: 15169971.
- [clinical-trial] Ackerman BH, et al. "Disposition of vessel dilator and long-acting natriuretic peptide in healthy humans after a one-hour infusion." J Pharmacol Exp Ther, 1997;282(2):603-8. PMID: 9262321.
- [clinical-trial] Vesely DL, et al. "Atrial natriuretic hormone, vessel dilator, long-acting natriuretic hormone, and kaliuretic hormone decrease the circulating concentrations of CRH, corticotropin, and cortisol." J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2001;86(9):4244-9. PMID: 11549655.
- [clinical-trial] Vesely DL, et al. "Vessel dilator, long acting natriuretic peptide, and kaliuretic peptide increase circulating prostaglandin E2." Life Sci, 2000;66(10):905-13. PMID: 10714891.
- [pubmed] Overton RM, et al. "Processing of long-acting natriuretic peptide and vessel dilator in human plasma and serum." Peptides, 1996;17(7):1155-62. PMID: 8959750.
- [clinical-trial] Cappellin E, et al. "Plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) fragments proANP (1-30) and proANP (31-67) measurements in chronic heart failure: a useful index for heart transplantation?." Clin Chim Acta, 2001;310(1):49-52. PMID: 11485754.
- [pubmed] De Palo EF, et al. "Circulating immunoreactive proANP(1-30) and proANP(31-67) in sedentary subjects and athletes." Clin Chem, 2000;46(6 Pt 1):843-7. PMID: 10839774.
- [pubmed] Ackerman BH, et al. "Vessel dilator is associated with survival after acute myocardial infarction." Int J Cardiol, 1995;47(3):235-44. PMID: 7721500.
- [pubmed] Clark LC, et al. "Amelioration with vessel dilator of acute tubular necrosis and renal failure established for 2 days." Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 2000;278(5):H1555-64. PMID: 10775133.
- [pubmed] Zhou Q, et al. "Subcutaneous pharmacokinetics of the cardiac hormone vessel dilator." Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol, 2014;41(8):565-70. PMID: 24889838.
- [pubmed] Lenz A, et al. "Twice-weekly intravenous treatment of pancreatic cancer with atrial natriuretic peptide and vessel dilator." In Vivo, 2010;24(2):125-9. PMID: 20363982.
- [pubmed] Vesely BA, et al. "Vessel dilator: most potent of the atrial natriuretic peptides in decreasing the number and DNA synthesis of human squamous lung cancer cells." Cancer Lett, 2006;233(2):226-31. PMID: 15893414.
- [pubmed] Abbasian M, et al. "Recombinant production, purification and characterization of vessel dilator in E. coli." Protein Expr Purif, 2017;129:75-83. PMID: 27664437.
- [other] UniProt P01160 (ANF_HUMAN), natriuretic peptides A prohormone; residues 56-92 are vessel dilator (proANP 31-67, EVVPPQVLSEPNEEAGAALSPLPEVPPWTGEVSPAQR). Read October 30, 2026. https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P01160/entry
Sources & Citations
Every study on this page was read from its PubMed record on October 30, 2026. Regulatory status comes from Drugs@FDA (openFDA) and the EMA medicines list, read the same day. Grey Peptides sells nothing and links to no vendor.
Medical Disclaimer: This content is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, and nothing here is an instruction to obtain or use any compound. Talk to a licensed clinician about your own situation.