Transcription of (pro)renin mRNA in the rat adrenal cortex, and the effects of ACTH treatment and a low sodium diet

Abstract

Transcription of the (pro)renin gene in the adult rat adrenal gland was studied by non-isotopic in situ hybridization.In glands from control (untreated) animals, transcription was relatively sparse, and occurred mostly in the outer zona fasciculata. Treatment with ACTH increased the apparent signal in both the glomerulosa and in fasciculata zones.A low sodium diet initially enhanced the transcription signal specifically in the glomerulosa, but as the regime was extended from 5 days to more than 2 weeks, the signal was also increased dramatically in the zona reticularis.The results emphasize the potential importance of the intraglandular renin-angiotensin system, particularly under conditions of chronic stimulation. They also suggest that angiotensin II, as well as being the major regulator of the glomerulosa, may also have some role in inner adrenocortical zone functions.

Adrenocortical zonation and ACTH

“…It now appears that the glomerulosa, but not the inner zones, is the site of formation of a multitude of factors that can act in a more or less paracrine/autocrine fashion (Table 3). The best studied of these is perhaps the glomerulosa tissue-located renin-angiotensin system (Mulrow, 1992;Mulrow and Franco-Saenz, 1996;Ho and Vinson, 1998;Ho, 1998b Ehrhart-Bornstein et al, 1998). All of the components of the renin-angiotensin system are present in glomerulosa tissue and angiotensin II is secreted by capsular tissue in vitro.…”

Biochemical, Structural and Pathophysiological Aspects of Prorenin and (Pro)renin Receptor

“…Prorenin (45-47 kDa containing 406 amino acid residues), the pre-active form of renin, is predominantly synthesized by granular cells of the juxtaglomerular apparatus (JGA) in the terminal afferent arteriole (Schnermann & Briggs, 2008;Schweda et al, 2007) and principle cells of the collecting ducts (Prieto-Carrasquero et al, 2004;Rohrwasser et al, 1999;Kang et al, 2008). Prorenin is also synthesized in many other tissues like adrenal glands (Ganten et al, 1974(Ganten et al, , 1976Ho and Vinson, 1998), zona glomerulosa (Doi et al, 1984;Brecher et al, 1989), eye, Müller cells, mast cells (Krop et al, 2008), ovarian follicular fluid (Glorioso et al, 1986), and theca cells (Do et al, 1988), uterus (Derkx et al, 1987;Itskovitz et al, 1987), myometrium/decidual cells (Shaw et al, 1989), placenta (Lenz et al, 1991), chorionic cells, testis and leydig cells (Sealey et al, 1988). The submandibular gland in some mice strains produces a large amount of renin, which is a product of the Ren-2 renin gene distinct from the renal renin gene, Ren-1 (Cohen et al, 1972;Wilson et al, 1981;Holm et al, 1984) and this action is mediated by prorenin converting enzyme present in submandibular gland of the same mice strains (Kim et al, 1991).…”