title: History about the discovery of the renin-angiotensin system.
abstract: The history of the discovery of the renin-angiotensin system began in 1898 with the studies made by Tigerstedt and Bergman, who reported the pressor effect of renal extracts; they named the renal substance renin based on its origin. In 1934, Harry Goldblatt induced experimental hypertension in dogs by clamping a renal artery. About 1936, simultaneously in the Medical School of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in the Eli-Lilly Laboratories in Indianapolis, 2 independent groups of researchers, using the Goldblatt technique to produce experimental hypertension, demonstrated renal secretion of a pressor agent similar to renin. In the following years, both teams described the presence of a new compound in the renal vein blood of ischemic kidneys. This agent was extracted from blood with 70% acetone and had a short pressor effect. The final conclusion was that renin acted enzymatically on a plasma protein to produce the new substance. In Buenos Aires, it was called hypertensin; in the United States, angiotonin. In 1958, Eduardo Braun Menéndez from Argentina and Irving H. Page from the United States agreed to name it angiotensin.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Cardiológicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. nidiabasso@yahoo.com
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Basso
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Terragno
mesh_terms: D000809:Angiotensins / Q000266:history*; D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000266:history; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000266:history; D012083:Renin / Q000266:history*; D012084:Renin-Angiotensin System; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000809:Angiotensins; D012083:Renin