title: Calcium and primary hypertension.
abstract: The role of dietary calcium in essential hypertension remains controversial. Various studies have found on the one hand a weak negative correlation between blood pressure and Ca2+ intake in special groups, and on the other hand a positive correlation between serum Ca2+ concentration and blood pressure. Several disturbances of cellular Ca2+ metabolism have been described in essential hypertension and in the spontaneously hypertensive rat. Possibly the elevation of intracellular free Ca2+ concentration in arterial smooth muscle cells is one important step in the pathogenesis of primary hypertension. In most studies a decreased energy-dependent Ca2+ transport has been proposed as a mechanism. However, disturbances in cellular Ca2+ metabolism, which can be exclusively ascribed to essential hypertension, have not yet been found. The cause of altered cellular Ca2+ transport in primary hypertension may either be a genetically determined defect of membrane transport or a still unidentified humoral factor.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood*; D002136:Calcium, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood* / Q000628:therapy; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR
chemical_list: D002136:Calcium, Dietary; D007473:Ion Channels; D002118:Calcium