It has been proposed that the local renin-angiotensin system is activated in the adventitia after vascular injury. However, the physiological role of Angiotensin II (Ang II) in the adventitia has not been studied at a cellular level. This study was designed to assess the role of Ang II in the growth response of cultured adventitial fibroblasts (AFs). Adventitial explants of the rat thoracic aor...

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that renal sympathetic nerves modulate angiotensin II-induced renal vasoconstriction in kidneys from genetically hypertensive rats via Y1 receptors activating the Gi pathway. In isolated, perfused kidneys from spontaneously hypertensive rats, the naturally occurring renal sympathetic cotransmitter neuropeptide Y at 6 nM enhanced angiotensin I...

BACKGROUND To assess the efficacy of aliskiren in patients failing to reach blood pressure (BP) goals with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). METHODS A total of 107 patients who failed to reach BP goals on ACEI or ARB were switched to aliskiren. Changes in BP were determined during maximal ACEI, ARB, or aliskiren therapy. RESULTS Mean reduc...

The renin-angiotensin system plays an important role in renal development. However, it is unknown whether reduction in angiotensin II effects during the nephrogenic period leads to different renal alterations in males and females during the adult age. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the role of angiotensin II on renal development is sex dependent and whether there are sex differen...

BACKGROUND Losartan is a new specific angiotensin II receptor antagonist with no agonist properties that provides the opportunity to study the consequences of angiotensin II blockade. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the hemodynamic and neurohormonal response to losartan in patients with congestive heart failure. METHODS AND RESULTS After baseline hemodynamic measurements us...

Endothelial dysfunction and inflammation enhance vulnerability to hypertensive brain damage. To explore the participation of Angiotensin II (Ang II) in the mechanism of vulnerability to cerebral ischemia during hypertension, we examined the expression of inflammatory factors and the heat shock protein (HSP) response in cerebral microvessels from spontaneously hypertensive rats and their normote...

Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease that contributes to the premature death of millions of people each year, and identification and treatment of hypertension continues to be a challenge. Guidelines recommend that many patients will require two or more antihypertensive agents from different classes. Combining an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) with hydrochlorothi...

OBJECTIVE To perform a systematic review of the antihypertensive activity of the angiotensin II AT1 receptor antagonists (ARB). METHODS Studies in which blood pressure (BP) was measured using ambulatory BP monitoring for at least 24 h were collected from MEDLINE. Data for each treatment group, ARB, placebo or the drug used for its comparison were obtained from the selected studies. Only studi...

The recently discovered angiotensin-converting enzyme-related carboxypeptidase 2 (ACE2)-[Angiotensin-(1-7)(Ang-(1-7)]-Mas receptor axis has an opposing function to that of the ACE-Angiotensin II (Ang II)-Angiotensin type 1 (AT1) receptor axis. Ang-(1-7) is present in the kidneys at concentrations comparable to those of Ang II and is associated with vasodilation, modulation of sodium and water t...

Gerbil angiotensin II AT(1) receptors have more than 90% amino acid sequence homology with human AT(1) receptors and similar affinity for the natural peptide agonist angiotensin II. However, their binding affinity for the biphenylimidazole AT(1) receptor antagonist losartan is greatly reduced compared with the hAT(1) receptor (400 times lower for the gAT(1A) receptor and 40 times lower for the ...