title: Urinary prostasin excretion is associated with adiposity in nonhypertensive African-American adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Metabolic abnormalities in obesity can overstimulate the renal epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) and subsequently lead to blood pressure (BP) elevation. Prostasin, a membrane-bound/secretive serine protease, is thought to activate ENaC via the proteolytic cleavage of the channel. Our specific aim was to explore whether there is a relationship between adiposity and urinary prostasin excretion at the population level.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 271 African-American adolescents, urinary prostasin concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and normalized by urinary creatinine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Urinary prostasin excretion increased in the overweight/obese group (n = 110, 38.2 ± 4.0 ng/mg) vs. the normal-weight group (n = 161, 20.7 ± 1.2 ng/mg, P = 0.03). Urinary prostasin excretion was significantly correlated with BMI percentiles (r = 0.14, P = 0.02), waist circumference (r = 0.13, P = 0.05), total body fat mass (r = 0.20, P < 0.01), and percentage body fat (r = 0.23, P < 0.01). Urinary prostasin excretion was also correlated with plasma aldosterone (r = 0.11, P = 0.05) and systolic BP (SBP; r = 0.15, P = 0.02), but the significances disappeared after adjustment of any of the adiposity variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data for the first time suggest that adiposity plays a role in urinary prostasin excretion, and its associations with aldosterone and BP appear to be modulated by adiposity. Whether urinary prostasin excretion is a biomarker/mechanism underlying obesity-related hypertension deserves further investigations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Georgia Prevention Institute, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, USA.
authors.forename: De-huang
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Samip J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Parikh
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: Norman K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Pollock
authors.forename: Xiaoling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Snieder
authors.forename: Gerjan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Navis
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Jigar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bhagatwala
authors.forename: Haidong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Yanbin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D050177:Overweight / Q000378:metabolism / Q000652:urine*; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000652:urine*; D000099271:Prostasin
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D000099271:Prostasin