Hanseatic endocrine conference on tissue prorenin-renin-angiotensin systems Local regulatory actions in reproductive and endocrine organs, Hamburg, July 15-16, 1994.
Over the past decade, substantial evidence has become available implicating tissue prorenin-renin-angiotensin systems (PRAS) in the local regulation of differentiated cell functions within the tissues where it is expressed. In contrast to a mixed enzyme-endocrine role classically ascribed to the renal renin-angiotensin system in the context of cardiovascular homeostasis, the tissue PRAS appears to play an autocrine, paracrine, or even an intracrine regulatory role. It has been well documented that PRAS is expressed in a wide variety of tissues, including reproductive and endocrine glands. We are now poised to take major strides toward understanding such fundamental issues as, for example, the tissue-specific regulation of the expression of PRAS, the nature of signal transduction pathways associated with various angiotensin II (AII) receptors, and the relevance of an aberrant expression of the tissue PRAS to pathophysiology encountered in a number of endocrine and reproductive organs. This symposium was organized as a satellite to the Third European Endocrinology Congress, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to focus the discussion on current advances in these important aspects of tissue PRAS and to generate ideas on future research strategies.
Mukhopadhyay
A K
AK
Institute for Hormone and Fertility Research, University of Hamburg, Grandweg 64, D-22529 Hamburg, Germany.