Obesity is a serious health hazard with rapidly increasing prevalence in the United States. In 2014, the World Health Organization estimated that nearly 2 billion people worldwide were overweight with an estimated 600 million of these obese. Obesity is associated with many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Data from the Framingham Heart study suggest that appr...

INTRODUCTION Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers are widely used in congestive heart failure and chronic kidney disease, but up to 40% of patients will experience aldosterone breakthrough, with aldosterone levels rising above pre-treatment levels after 6-12 months of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system blockade. Aldosterone breakthrough has been associate...

Aldosterone is a steroid hormone secreted from the adrenal cortex, which regulates blood pressure. Higher concentrations of aldosterone can cause several diseases, including hypertension, diabetic nephropathy and chronic kidney disease. Previous reports have demonstrated that aldosterone has a pathogenic role in renal injury via reactive oxygen species (ROS), which involves the regulation of au...

BACKGROUND Metabolic syndrome (MS) occurs frequently in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). We hypothesized that aldosterone levels are elevated in OSAHS and associated with the presence of MS. METHODS We studied 66 patients with OSAHS (33 with MS and 33 without MS) and 35 controls. The occurrence of the MS was analyzed according to the National Cholesterol Educat...

Serum aldosterone levels are often elevated in patients with heart failure and are associated with poor clinical outcomes. Aldosterone can be produced in extra-adrenal tissues including the heart, and the local increase in aldosterone exerts deleterious effects on heart structure and function. Aldosterone has 2 types of effects on intracellular ion milieu and cellular function. One is the class...

The role of aldosterone has expanded from the hormone's genomic effects that involve renal sodium transport to nongenomic effects that are independent of the effect of aldosterone on sodium transport. The nongenomic effects of aldosterone to increase fibrosis, collagen deposition, inflammation, and remodeling of the heart and blood vessels, however, are markedly increased in the presence of hig...

Chronic aldosterone administration increases glomerular filtration rate, whereas inhibition of mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs) markedly attenuates glomerular hyperfiltration and hypertension associated with primary aldosteronism or obesity. However, the mechanisms by which aldosterone alters glomerular filtration rate regulation are poorly understood. In the present study, we hypothesized tha...

OBJECTIVES Aldosterone synthase produces aldosterone, which regulates electrolytes and thereby blood pressure. Polymorphisms in aldosterone-synthase gene (CYP11B2) may associate with heterogeneous aldosterone production and hypertension. Hence, we investigated -344T/C, Iw/Ic polymorphisms of CYP11B2, plasma renin activity (PRA) and aldosterone concentration (PAC). DESIGN AND METHODS Consecuti...

Aldosterone exerts direct effects on the vascular system by inducing oxidative stress, inflammation, hypertrophic remodeling, fibrosis, and endothelial dysfunction. Aldosterone exerts its effects through genomic and nongenomic pathways in a mineralocorticoid receptor (MR)-dependent or independent manner. Other aldosterone receptors such as GPR30 have been identified. A tight relation exists bet...

Aldosterone regulates blood pressure through its effects on the cardiovascular system and kidney. Aldosterone can also contribute to the development of hypertension that leads to chronic pathologies such as nephropathy and renal fibrosis. Aldosterone directly modulates renal cell proliferation and differentiation as part of normal kidney development. The stimulation of rapidly activated protein...