NOMENCLATURE OF THE RENIN-ANGIOTENSIN SYSTEM

Abstract

On the occasion of the Fourth Meeting of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) in Sydney, 24-26 February 1976, a nomenclature committee was founded with the specific task to review the present nomenclature of the renin-angiotensin system (PAS) and to adopt it to the rules laid down by the Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and the International Union of Biochemistry (IUB). Apart from the members of the ISH-Committee¹, the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association also appointed a nomenclature committee² which jointed the efforts of the ISH-Committee. Valuable suggestions came from scientists throughout the world in response to different memoranda which were drafted and circulated by the committee. It was agreed upon that there may be two kinds of nomenclature, one trivial working nomenclature with usually brief and historically grown names, and a second systematic nomenclature to be introduced if the substance is well enough characterized to allow such classification.