Role of increased circulating and renal adrenomedullin in rats with malignant hypertension

Toshio Nishikimi, Fumiki Yoshihara, Akio Kanazawa, Ichiro Okano, Takeshi Horio, Noritoshi Nagaya, Chikao Yutani, Hisayuki Matsuo, Hiroaki Matsuoka, Kenji Kangawa
2001 American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology  
Role of increased circulating and renal adrenomedullin in rats with malignant hypertension. Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol 281: R2079-R2087, 2001.-Although it has been reported that the circulating adrenomedullin (AM) level is elevated in hypertension and renal failure, the pathophysiological significance of circulating and intrarenal AM in malignant hypertension remains unknown. We investigated the circulating and intrarenal AM system in rats with malignant hypertension by
more » ... suring the plasma level, renal tissue level, and mRNA abundance of AM and the mRNA abundance of AM receptor. We also investigated the effects of intravenously infused calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-(8-37), an antagonist of AM, on the hemodynamics and renal tubular function. We studied the following four groups: control Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY), control spontaneously hypertensive rats (C-SHR), salt-loaded SHR (S-SHR), and DOCA-salt SHR (D-SHR). After 3 wk of DOCA treatment, D-SHR developed malignant hypertension. D-SHR were characterized by higher blood pressure, kidney weight, urinary protein excretion and blood urea nitrogen, and lower creatinine clearance compared with the other three groups. The plasma AM level and urinary excretion of AM were markedly higher in D-SHR than in the other three groups. In the kidney, the tissue AM level and the expression of AM mRNA in the renal medulla were significantly increased in D-SHR compared with the other three groups, whereas there were no significant differences in these levels in the renal cortex among the four groups. In the renal AM receptor system, the expression of the gene for receptor activity modifying protein 3 was significantly increased in the renal medulla in D-SHR compared with the other three groups. An immunohistochemical study revealed that AM immunostaining in renal collecting duct cells and distal tubules was more intense in D-SHR than in the other three groups. After CGRP-(8-37) infusion, blood pressure increased significantly and urinary sodium excretion and urine flow decreased significantly only in D-SHR. These results suggest that the increased circulating AM and renal AM and the increased expression of the mRNA for AM and its receptor may at least partly compensate for the malignant hypertensive state in certain forms of malignant hypertension via the hypotensive, natriuretic, and diuretic actions of AM. kidney; adrenomedullin receptor; hypertensive rat; renal function
doi:10.1152/ajpregu.2001.281.6.r2079 pmid:11705795 fatcat:bl2csbjq2fh4xhl27q2ppipsdu