Renin content of kidneys in experimental renal and human essential hypertension

Abstract

The renin content of the ischemic kidney of dogs with experimental renal hypertension due to constriction of only one main renal artery was significantly elevated, while that of the contralateral, untouched kidney was abnormally low. Constriction of the main artery of one kidney and contralateral nephrectomy also resulted in hypertension and a great increase of renin in the ischemic kidney. In patients with hypertension accompanied by impairment of renal excretory function the renin content of the kidneys, the seat of arterial and arteriolar sclerosis, with or without accompanying pyelonephritis, was increased, on an average, to about four times that of normal kidneys, and, in individual cases, to as much as sixteen times the mean normal value. In this study, extraction of the renal tissue, after the freezing and thawing of the organ, yielded twice as much renin as previous extraction of the fresh tissue. The specific activity of the renin preparations from dog and human kidneys was enhanced twofold and fourfold, respectively, by means of revised methods for the extraction and partial purification of renin.