Abstract
To investigate the interaction between the renin angiotensin aldosterone system and the renal prostaglandin (PG), urinary excretion of PGE, urinary excretion of main urinary metabolite (MUM) of PGF2α, urinary excretion of aldosterone, and plasma renin activity were measured before and after infusion of 1-Sar-8-Ile-Angiotensin II, a specific competitive inhibitor of angiotensin II, in 18 patients with essential hypertension under normal and low sodium diets. The values of urinary sodium excretion in these patients before the infusion of the peptide were 160.8±13.3 and 27.0±2.7 mEq per day on normal and low sodium diet, respectively. On normal sodium diet, urinary excretion of PGE was found to correlate with the level of plasma renin activity before the infusion (r=0.6977, p<0.01), and it was decreased slightly from 0.37±0.05 ng/min to 0.26±0.04 ng/min after the infusion of the antagonist. On low sodium diet, urinary excretion of PGE was not significantly changed by the infusion of the peptide and showed no correlation with the level of plasma renin activity before the infusion, while urinary excretion of PGE showed a significant correlation with the excretion of urinary aldosterone (r=0.6719, p<0.02). Excretion of PGF2αMUM decreased after the infusion of this peptide on both sodium diets, but the changes were not statis-tically significant. The present data suggest that angiotensin II influences the synthesis or release of renal PG in patients with essential hypertension on normal sodium diet, but not when they are on low sodium diet.
