A novel inbred rat model with inducible hypertension has been generated using a renin transgene under the transcriptional control of the cytochrome P450, Cyp1a1 promoter. The degree and duration of hypertension are regulated tightly by administration of the natural xenobiotic indole-3 carbinol and can be readily reversed. Induction experiments reveal distinct temporal and mechanistic responses to hypertensive injury in different vascular beds, which is indicative of differential susceptibility of organs to a hypertensive stimulus. The mesentery and heart exhibited the greatest sensitivity to damage, and the kidney showed an adaptive response prior to the development of malignant hypertensive injury. Quantitative analysis of morphological changes induced in mesenteric resistance arteries suggest eutrophic remodeling of the vessels. Kinetic evidence suggests that locally activated plasma prorenin may play a critical role in mediating vascular injury. This model will facilitate studies of the cellular and genetic mechanisms underlying vascular injury and repair and provide a basis for the identification of novel therapeutic targets for vascular disease.Essential hypertension has a complex multifactorial phenotype. Both genetic and environmental factors influence its development, and understanding the pathogenesis of complications such as vascular lesions and end-organ damage may lead to more specific treatment and targeted intervention.We have identified candidate loci in rats that may contribute to target organ damage and mortality in malignant hypertension (MH), 1 a condition characterized by an accelerated rise in blood pressure, endothelial injury, activation of the reninangiotensin system, and microangiopathy (1). Several animal models have been generated to investigate the pathophysiology of hypertensive vascular injury. Most animal models of MH to date require surgical or pharmacological intervention to precipitate onset or depend on the constitutive expression of endogenous genes or heterologous transgenes (2-5). In rats doubly transgenic for human renin and angiotensinogen genes, hypertension and fibrinoid vasculitis (5) accompanied by alteration in surface adhesion molecules, proinflammatory cytokines, fibrogenic mediators and leukocyte infiltration (6) have been reported. In most of these models, the onset of disease cannot be determined precisely.The initiation events of pathological processes can only be studied in an animal model in which hypertension is induced by tightly temporally regulated gene expression. If the onset and level of hypertension can be controlled, then the cellular and molecular events during initiation of the vascular and organ injury can be identified unequivocally. Reversibility of the gene expression provides an opportunity to study the molecular and cellular basis of repair. We therefore have generated inbred transgenic rats with inducible hypertension using the cytochrome P450 promoter, Cyp1a1, to drive expression of the mouse Ren-2 gene. The transgene is expressed primarily ...

BackgroundWe tested the controversial hypothesis that vitamin D depletion aggravates hypertension and target‐organ damage by influencing renin.Methods and ResultsFour‐week‐old double‐transgenic rats (dTGR) with excess angiotensin (Ang) II production due to overexpression of the human renin (hREN) and angiotensinogen (hAGT) genes received vitamin D‐depleted (n=18) or standard chow (n=15) for 3 weeks. The depleted group had very low serum 25‐hydroxyvitamin D levels (mean±SEM; 3.8±0.29 versus 40.6±1.19 nmol/L) and had higher mean systolic BP at week 5 (158±3.5 versus 134.6±3.7 mm Hg, P<0.001), week 6 (176.6±3.3 versus 162.3±3.8 mm Hg, P<0.01), and week 7 (171.6±5.1 versus 155.9±4.3 mm Hg, P<0.05). Vitamin D depletion led to increased relative heart weights and increased serum creatinine concentrations. Furthermore, the mRNAs of natriuretic peptides, neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin, hREN, and rRen were increased by vitamin D depletion. Regulatory T cells in the spleen and in the circulation were not affected. Ang metabolites, including Ang II and the counter‐regulatory breakdown product Ang 1 to 7, were significantly up‐regulated in the vitamin D‐depleted groups, while ACE‐1 and ACE‐2 activities were not affected.ConclusionsShort‐term severe vitamin D depletion aggravated hypertension and target‐organ damage in dTGR. Our data suggest that even short‐term severe vitamin D deficiency may directly promote hypertension and impacts on renin‐angiotensin system components that could contribute to target‐organ damage. The findings add to the evidence that vitamin D deficiency could also affect human hypertension.

Angiotensin II (ANG II) is a major stimulator of aldosterone biosynthesis. When investigating the relative contribution of circulating and locally produced ANG II, we were therefore surprised to find that ANG II, given chronically s.c. (200 ng/kg x min), markedly inhibits a nephrectomy (NX)-induced rise of aldosterone concentrations (from 10 +/- 2 to 465 +/- 90 ng/100 ml in vehicle infused, and from 9 +/- 2 to 177 +/- 35 in ANG II infused rats 55 h after NX and hemodialysis). We further observed, by in situ hybridization, that bilateral NX increases the number of adrenocortical cells expressing renin and that this rise was prevented by ANG II. Moreover, the rise of aldosterone levels was also inhibited by the AT1-receptor antagonist, losartan (10 microg/kg x min, chronically i.p. from 8 +/- 2 to 199 +/- 26 ng/100 ml), despite the absence of circulating renin and a reduction of ANG I to less than 10%. These data demonstrate that aldosterone production, after NX, is regulated by an intraadrenal renin-angiotensin system and that this system is physiologically suppressed by circulating angiotensin. Because the effects of losartan or ANG II on aldosterone production involved a latency period of at least 30 h after NX and were associated with a modulation or recruitment of renin-producing cells, we suggest that the intraadrenal renin-angiotensin system operates via regulation of cell differentiation on a long-term scale, rather than or additionally to its short-term effects on aldosterone synthase activity.

Epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) activity in kidney and colon is stimulated by aldosterone acting on the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). MR and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) show high homology in their DNA-binding domain and have similar affinities to mineralo- and glucocorticoids. We therefore asked whether the glucocorticoid-mediated activation of ENaC is restricted to the presence of MR and used the MR knockout mouse model to address this question. Due to their MR deficiency and the consecutive reduction of ENaC activity these mice die as neonates, and even after appropriate substitution therapy adult MR knockout mice suffer from high Na+ loss and hyperkalemia. In the present study, glucocorticoid treatment restored plasma K+ and almost normalized the fractional excretions of Na+ (FENa+) and K+ (FEK+) in adult salt-substituted MR knockout mice, while the effect of amiloride on FENa+ and FEK+ was augmented in these animals. In order to estimate ENaC activity, measurements of transepithelial equivalent short-circuit current (Isc) were performed. Glucocorticoids induced an amiloride-sensitive Na+ absorption in renal cortical collecting duct and distal colon of MR-/- of about 25% and 50% of the currents observed in glucocorticoid-treated wild-type mice, respectively. In the colon glucocorticoid treatment increased the mRNA abundance of all three ENaC subunits, in the kidney only alpha-ENaC was increased. The regulation of ENaC expression was the same in both genotypes and thus irrespective of the presence of MR. These data show that MR is no prerequisite for the activation of ENaC transcription and activity, and that the respective mechanisms can be stimulated via GR.

Polyarteritis nodosa is a necrotizing vasculitis of medium-sized arteries of unknown origin. Hypertension is present in 30% of patients with polyarteritis nodosa. In those cases, high renin levels are thought to be secondary to renal involvement. The present study was performed to identify causal factors of polyarteritis nodosa. In cyp1a1ren-2 transgenic rats, vasculitis of medium-sized arteries resembling classical polyarteritis nodosa can be induced. In this model, oral administration of indole-3-carbinol (I3C) activates the liver-specific cyp1a1 promoter, leading to prorenin expression in a dose-dependent manner. After the first 6 weeks of chronic induction with 0.125% I3C, the mean arterial pressure reached a plateau of about 170 mmHg. Ten out of 11 I3C-treated rats, which were chronically instrumented with a telemetric device to measure blood pressure, developed polyarteritis nodosa within 10 weeks of I3C treatment. I3C alone or instrumentation alone did not cause polyarteritis nodosa. The angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor captopril completely prevented the development of polyarteritis nodosa, indicating that local angiotensin II generation is a pathogenetic factor in this model. The renin–angiotensin system can play a primary role in the development of polyarteritis nodosa in rats.

Transgenic rats, termed TGR(mREN2)27, have been generated carrying the mouse ren-2 renin gene. As intended the gene was expressed highly within the adrenal gland offering the opportunity to study the intraadrenal renin-angiotensin system in vivo. Concomitantly with increased adrenal renin activity, the production of adrenocortical steroids are elevated and the regulation of aldosterone production is impaired in TGR(mREN2)27. Furthermore, the transgenic rats develop severe sodium dependent hypertension. Since kidney and plasma renin concentrations and plasma angiotensins are low in the transgenic model, those factors cannot account for the altered regulation of aldosterone production. Instead the experiments with TGR(mREN2)27 demonstrate the functional role of the local adrenal renin-angiotensin system.

Since the body fluids are nearly neutral and since they contain no appreciable quantities of organic bases, the concentration of cations in these fluids must be equal to the concentration of the inorganic cations found in them, [Na] + [K] +[Ca] + [Mg]. This, in turn, must be equal to the total concentration of anions. The distribution of water between cells and extracellular fluids in the body appears to be governed mainly by the concentration in the extracellular fluids of sodium, the principal one of those osmotically active components which are restrained from crossing the cellular membranes. In addition, sodium constitutes the chief cation of the extracellular fluids. In normal serum it makes up more than 90 per cent of the total concentration of cations. Although the concentrations of the other cations, profoundly influence physiological processes, they are so small and vary so little that their effects on osmotic and cation-anion equilibria are trifling. The concentration of sodium is, therefore, the best single criterion of the electrolyte osmotic pressure and the concentration of cations in the serum and extracellular fluids. The measurement of sodium has, however, been so laborious and time-consuming that it has been less useful for clinical than for investigative purposes.In lieu of direct measurement the concentration of sodium has usually been estimated from the combined concentrations of bicarbonate and chloride. In normal subjects these 2 ions together make up from 85 to 90 per cent of the anions of serum, falling only a little short of equaling sodium. The object of this paper is to examine the accuracy of such inferences. With the flame photometer it will become possible to measure the sodium of serum with sufficient speed and facility to make this measurement clinically available.

The existence of a local renin/angiotensin system in the intestine of mammals is speculative despite the known importance of angiotensin II for water and electrolyte homeostasis. We demonstrate the presence of ren-2 transcripts in the small intestine of DBA/2 mice. The marked expression of the ren-2 gene is blunted tissue-specifically by starvation, corroborating a local renin/angiotensin system in this organ.