The abnormal distribution of plasma renin values described in established essential hypertension are also found in patients with very early, borderline hypertension. In established hypertension, renin values have been used to draw inferences about the pathophysiology of blood pressure elevation. Within this concept, the low-renin state is considered a volume-dependent (volume expanded) form of ...

An increase in the free intracellular calcium concentration promotes exocytosis in most secretory cells. In contrast, renin release from juxtaglomerular (JG) cells is suppressed by calcium. The further downstream signaling cascades of this so called "calcium paradoxon" of renin secretion have been incompletely defined. Because cAMP is the main intracellular stimulator of renin release, we hypot...

The effects of thyroid hormone on renin secretion, renin content, and renin mRNA levels in juxtaglomerular (JG) cells harvested from rat kidneys were determined by radioimmunoassays and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Despite a lack of immediate effect, incubation with triiodothyronine dose dependently increased renin secretion during the first 6 h and elevated renin content an...

Deletion of connexin 40 (Cx40) leads to ectopic hyperplasia of renin-producing cells in the kidney, which is associated with dysregulated hyperreninemia and hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine whether Cx45 is able to substitute the function of Cx40 with regard to the localization of renin-producing cells. For this purpose, we have studied the distribution of renin-expressing ce...

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in the brain is a critical determinant of blood pressure, but the mechanisms regulating RAS activity in the brain remain unclear. Expression of brain renin (renin-b) occurs from an alternative promoter-first exon. The predicted translation product is a nonsecreted enzymatically active renin whose function is unknown. We generated a unique mouse model by select...

Kallikrein is present in the renal tubule near the macula densa, and it has recently been shown to activate inactive renin in human plasma. We recently showed that kallikrein was a potent stimulus of renin release and increased renin secretion in a dose-dependent fashion. To study its effect on renal renin release, we superfused rat renal cortical slices with purified rat urinary kallikrein. Ka...

Todorov, Vladimir, Markus Müller, Frank Schweda, and Armin Kurtz. Tumor necrosis factorinhibits renin gene expression. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 283: R1046–R1051, 2002. First published June 27, 2002; 10.1152/ajpregu.00142.2002.—Renin, produced in renal juxtaglomerular (JG) cells, is a fundamental regulator of blood pressure. Accumulating evidence suggests that cytokines may directl...

The (pro)renin receptor is a newly discovered member of the brain renin-angiotensin system. To investigate the role of brain (pro)renin receptor in hypertension, adeno-associated virus-mediated (pro)renin receptor short hairpin RNA was used to knockdown (pro)renin receptor expression in the brain of nontransgenic normotensive and human renin-angiotensinogen double-transgenic hypertensive mice. ...

1. Human plasma contains two types of renin: one is active in its native form (active renin), the other has renin-like activity after exposure to low pH (inactive renin). Reactions of acid-activated plasma renin and kidney renin with either homo­ logous or heterologous substrate showed identical Km values. 2. Peripheral venous values for active and inactive renin in essential hypertension (n = ...

BACKGROUND Renin is synthesized in the collecting duct and is regulated differently than renin in the juxtaglomerular apparatus. However, the physiological relevance of collecting duct renin remains unknown, particularly with regard to its ability to regulate blood pressure. METHODS We used gene targeting to generate mice with overexpression of renin in the collecting duct. A conditional muta...