The effect of the natriuretic peptides ANP, BNP and CNP on cGMP formation and immediate early gene expression was investigated in PC12 phaeochromocytoma and C6 glioma cell lines. The three natriuretic peptides were shown to rapidly induce c-fos, TIS8/egr-1 and junB mRNA expression in both cell lines, via stimulation of the cGMP pathway. CNP stimulated cGMP formation and gene induction more potently than the other peptides in C6 cells, and this was statistically significant. In contrast, the three peptides produced similar gene induction in PC12 cells, despite the higher cGMP accumulation evoked by ANP or BNP. CNP was also found to increase DNA binding activity of the transcription factor AP1 in both cell types, demonstrating that natriuretic peptides potentially regulate key cellular gene expression.