title: High plasma endothelin-1 levels in hypertensive patients with low-renin essential hypertension.
abstract: Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a potent vasoconstrictor peptide derived from endothelial cells and may be important in the control of systemic blood pressure (BP) and local blood flow. Immunoreactive ET-1 plasma levels may be normal or elevated in human arterial hypertension, although the exact pathophysiological role of ET-1 remains to be established. The aim of our study was to determine the relationship between the components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and plasma ET-1 levels in patients with low, normal or high-renin essential hypertension. The study groups included 13 patients with low-renin essential hypertension (average age 43.5 +/- 16.2 years), 16 patients with normal-renin essential hypertension (46.5 +/- 13.4 years), 11 patients with high-renin essential hypertension (40.7 +/- 13.8 years) and 12 healthy subjects (43.1 +/- 11.4 years). Our results demonstrated that the mean ET-1 values of all patients with essential hypertension were 10.4 +/- 3.4 pg/ml; there was not a statistical correlation between plasma renin activity (PRA) and the ET-1 levels of hypertensives; instead there was a statistically significant correlation between plasma ET-1 and plasma aldosterone (PA) (r = 0.393; P < 0.026). In particular mean plasma ET-1 values in patients with low-renin essential hypertension (12.6 +/- 2.1 pg/ml) were significantly higher (ANOVA = 0.000, P < 0.05) than those of normotensive subjects (7.7 +/- 1.7 pg/ml), patients with normal-renin essential hypertension (8.5 +/- 2.8 pg/ml), and patients with high-renin essential hypertension (9.9 +/- 3.8 pg/ml), respectively. There was a statistical correlation between PA and ET-1 levels in patients with low-renin essential hypertension (r = 0.619, P < 0.024). Our study demonstrated that there was an increase of circulating ET-1 levels in patients with low-renin essential hypertension and ET-1 plasma levels correlated with PA. The results suggest that ET-1 may play an important role in this particular form of human essential hypertension.
authors.affiliation: I Patologia Medica, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Letizia
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cerci
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Toma
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: D'Ambrosio
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Ciocchis
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Coassin
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scavo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012083:Renin / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D019332:Endothelin-1; D012083:Renin