Vascular sodium-potassium pump activity in various models of experimental hypertension

A role for benzamil-sensitive proteins of the central nervous system in the pathogenesis of salt-dependent hypertension

1. Although increasing evidence suggests that salt-sensitive hypertension is a disorder of the central nervous system (CNS), little is known about the critical proteins (e.g. ion channels or exchangers) that play a role in the pathogenesis of the disease. 2. Central pathways involved in the regulation of arterial pressure have been investigated. In addition, systems such as the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis, initially characterized in the periphery, are present in the CNS and seem to play a role in the regulation of arterial pressure. 3. Central administration of amiloride, or its analogue benzamil hydrochloride, has been shown to attenuate several forms of salt-sensitive hypertension. In addition, intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) benzamil effectively blocks pressor responses to acute osmotic stimuli, such as i.c.v. hypertonic saline. Amiloride or its analogues have been shown to interact with the brain renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and to effect the expression of endogenous ouabain-like compounds. Alterations of brain RAAS function and/or endobain expression could play a role in the interaction between amiloride compounds and arterial pressure. Peripheral treatments with benzamil, even at higher doses than those given centrally, have little or no effect on arterial pressure. These data provide strong evidence that benzamil-sensitive proteins (BSPs) of the CNS play a role in cardiovascular responsiveness to sodium. 4. Mineralocorticoids have been linked to human hypertension; many patients with essential hypertension respond well to pharmacological agents antagonizing the mineralocorticoid receptor and certain genetic forms of hypertension are caused by chronically elevated levels of aldosterone. The deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt model of hypertension is a benzamil-sensitive model that incorporates several factors implicated in the aetiology of human disease, including mineralocorticoid action and increased dietary sodium. The DOCA-salt model is ideal for investigating the role of BSPs in the pathogenesis of hypertension, because mineralocorticoid action has been shown to modulate the activity of at least one benzamil-sensitive protein, namely the epithelial sodium channel. 5. Characterizing the BSPs involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension may provide a novel clinical target. Further studies are necessary to determine which BSPs are involved and where, in the nervous system, they are located.

Role of dietary salt in hypertension

Certain things have not changed since my colleague and I last reviewed the role of dietary salt in hypertension [Haddy, F.J., Pamnani, M.B., 1995. Role of dietary salt in hypertension. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 14, 428-438]. Over half of hypertensives are still salt sensitive, i.e., they respond to a high NaCl intake with a rise in blood pressure. This can be ameliorated by restricting NaCl intake, supplementing potassium intake, and consuming diuretics. Some things have changed. We now have more insight into mechanism; we suspected that volume expansion and endogenous Na(+),K(+)-ATPase inhibitors were the connection between excessive salt intake and the hypertension, but we were not certain as to the nature of the inhibitors. Now it appears that the inhibitors are steroids released from the adrenal gland and are members of the cardenolide family, e.g., ouabain, and the bufadienolide family, e.g., marinobufagenin. This presents new possibilities in therapy, including antibodies to these agents and competitive inhibitors to their binding to Na(+),K(+)-ATPase.

Digoxin enhances the pressor response to aldosterone administration in conscious sheep

1. This study examined the hypothesis that inhibition of Na,K ATPase with digoxin would enhance the pressor response to aldosterone infusion in conscious sheep. 2. While intravenous infusion of digoxin (10 micrograms/kg per day for 5 days) had no effect on blood pressure and aldosterone infusion (6 micrograms/kg per day for 5 days) increased blood pressure by 7 mmHg, combined infusion of digoxin and aldosterone increased blood pressure by 17 mmHg. 3. The metabolic effects of the combined digoxin and aldosterone infusion were similar to those for aldosterone alone, suggesting that digoxin did not enhance the mineralocorticoid action of aldosterone. 4. The results of this study suggest that changes in Na influx (aldosterone-dependent) and efflux (digoxin-dependent) are important in the genesis of aldosterone-induced hypertension.

Problems and pitfalls in the isolation of an endogenous Na+, K+-ATPase inhibitor

Plasma from volume-expanded and salt-loaded hypertensive animals and from patients with essential hypertension has been reported to inhibit Na+, K+-adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase). Inhibition of the sodium pump in vascular smooth muscle caused by such a circulating factor could increase vascular tone and sensitivity to vasoactive agents, and thereby result in arterial hypertension. Numerous efforts in the past failed to isolate the putative factor from urine and plasma. Recent studies have suggested that the hypothalamus is an important source of an endogenous Na+, K+-ATPase inhibitor, but its isolation from the tissue extracts has been rendered difficult by the presence of other cellular constituents that cause artifactual interference with the assays and purification procedures. Using an alternative approach of isolating the inhibitor from culture medium, we found that dispersed fetal rat hypothalamic neurons in a capillary culture system release a heat-stable, peptidic, low-molecular-weight, active sodium transport inhibitor that causes a reversible increase in vascular tone, sensitizes vascular smooth muscle to the vasoactive effect of norepinephrine, and possesses several characteristics of the putative endogenous digitalislike factor. This inhibitor may be a chemical mediator linking kidney, brain, and cardiovascular system in the genesis of experimental volume-expanded and salt-loaded hypertension and human essential hypertension.

Decreased Na+K+ATPase activity in the aortic endothelium and smooth muscle of the spontaneously hypertensive rats

The activity of Na+K+ ATPase in the endothelium and smooth muscle of the aortae of normotensive and hypertensive rats was investigated. The enzyme activity in the endothelium and smooth muscle of the spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) was 2.15 +/- 0.48 and 12.98 +/- 0.99 respectively. These values were significantly lower (P less than 0.05) than the enzyme activity in the corresponding tissues (10.10 +/- 1.78 for endothelium, 20.77 +/- 2.54 for smooth muscle) of the normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats. However, with the low blood pressure spontaneously hypertensive rats (LBP-SHR) i.e. in those animals whose blood pressures were below 150 mm Hg, the enzyme activity in both tissues was not significantly different from those of the WKY. Since Na+ K+ ATPase is coupled to the sodium-potassium pump whose activity affects the functions of other pumps, the results indicate that the development of high blood pressure in the SHR may be related to an alteration in the transport of cations across the cell membrane.

Liver susceptibility to ischaemia in spontaneously hypertensive rats

Blood loss has previously been shown to be more detrimental for spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) than for normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. To evaluate whether this decreased tolerance to blood loss is due to disturbances in circulatory control or to alterations in cellular function caused by the hypertensive disease, SHR and WKY were subjected to complete liver ischaemia. During a 45-min period of ischaemia as well as after 4 h of reflow, the liver content of ATP, glycogen, glucose and lactate was determined. Liver ATP decreased to 15% and liver glycogen to 30% of initial levels, while liver glucose increased 6-fold and liver lactate 13-fold during the ischaemic period in both SHR and WKY. Following 4 h of reflow, ATP was restored to 11.5 +/- 1.7 mumol X g protein-1 (56% of initial level) in SHR and to 15.2 +/- 1.3 (76%) in WKY. The levels of lactate and glucose returned to control levels after the reflow period while the glycogen stores were further depleted in SHR as well as WKY. No difference between SHR and WKY in cellular metabolic function during the ischaemic period could thus be demonstrated, and the postischaemic recovery was not significantly different. It is concluded that hypertensive disease does not seem to change the ischaemic tolerance of liver cells to any considerable extent.

Neurotransmitter release, vascular responsiveness and their suppression by Ca-antagonist in perfused mesenteric vasculature of DOCA-salt hypertensive rats

To investigate the role of norepinephrine release from the sympathetic nerve endings and vascular responsiveness in the pathogenesis of hypertension, the perfused mesenteric preparations were used in DOCA-salt hypertensive rats (acute phase: 10 days after operation, chronic phase: 7-8 weeks). In addition, the effects of a Ca-antagonist (verapamil) on the norepinephrine release and vascular responsiveness were also examined. Vasoconstrictor responses to the electrical nerve stimulation were significantly greater in DOCA-salt hypertension in the chronic phase than the age-matched normotensive controls. The pressor responses to exogenous norepinephrine were significantly enhanced in DOCA-salt hypertension both in acute and chronic phases. Endogenous norepinephrine overflow from the sympathetic nerve endings during the electrical nerve stimulation was enhanced in the chronic phase of DOCA-salt hypertension, but not in the acute phase, compared with the age-matched normotensive controls. After infusion of verapamil, the pressor responses and norepinephrine overflow by the electrical nerve stimulation were significantly inhibited, and the suppression was greater in chronic DOCA-salt hypertension than in the normotensive controls. These results demonstrate that the vascular responsiveness was increased in both acute and chronic phases of DOCA-salt hypertensive rats, while the norepinephrine overflow from the adrenergic nerve terminals was enhanced only in the chronic phase. More marked inhibition of the vasoconstrictor responses and norepinephrine overflow in the presence of a Ca-antagonist in chronic DOCA-salt hypertension might represent the higher Ca-dependency in the neurotransmission of the peripheral resistance vessels, especially in the mechanism of presynaptic norepinephrine release, than their normotensive controls, and it could partly contribute to the development and maintenance of DOCA-salt hypertension.

Myocardial (Na+,K+)-ATPase activity in Dahl salt-sensitive and resistant rats

Vascular (Na+,K+)-pump activity (ouabain-sensitive 86Rb+ uptake) and myocardial (Na+,K+)-ATPase activity are reduced in animals with various forms of low renin, experimental hypertension. On the other hand, vascular (Na+,K+)-pump activity is increased in Dahl salt-sensitive relative to resistant rats (a genetic model of hypertension), regardless of salt intake or blood pressure and it is also increased in Dahl salt-sensitive rats on high salt (8% NaCl) relative to low salt (0.4% NaCl) diets. It has been suggested that this increase in vascular (Na+,K+)-pump activity may be secondary to an increase in the vascular sarcolemmal permeability to Na+ in these salt-sensitive rats. In the present study, (Na+,K+)-ATPase activity of left ventricular microsomal fractions, was increased in Dahl salt-sensitive relative to resistant rats on low salt diets; however, this difference disappeared when these salt-sensitive and resistant rats were placed on high salt diets. In contrast, myocardial (Na+,K+)-ATPase activity was decreased in Dahl salt-sensitive rats on high relative to low salt diets. Evidence that this decrease in (Na+,K+)-ATPase activity is not secondary to myocardial hypertrophy in the hypertensive salt-sensitive rats, and mechanisms by which decreased cardiovascular (Na+,K+)-pump activity, increased sarcolemmal permeability or both, might contribute to elevated blood pressure, are discussed.

Is red cell sodium transport a function of pressure?

Sodium efflux from normal red cells was measured as a function of pressure to test whether abnormal sodium transport in hypertension is a direct consequence of the increased arterial pressure. Red cells were loaded with 22Na and sodium efflux was measured at 37 degrees C while the samples were in a bomb at constant pressures of 200 mmHg or 517 mmHg. Control samples were incubated concurrently at atmospheric pressure and the same temperature. The effect of preincubation of blood at 200 mmHg for 3.5 h on sodium efflux was also measured. 22Na efflux and first order efflux rate constants were similar in high and normal pressure samples in each case. These findings suggest that acute changes in pressure have no effect on erythrocyte sodium efflux, which in turn implies that abnormal membrane transport in hypertension is not a consequence of the raised arterial pressure.

Hypertension-producing factor in serum of hypertensive Dahl salt-sensitive rats

To investigate whether serum in hypertensive Dahl salt-sensitive rats (S rats) contains a hypertensinogenic substance, we examined the effects of repeated injections of serum from such S rats on blood pressure (BP) and pressor responses. Serum was collected from either hypertensive or normotensive S rats (fed an 8% or 0.11% NaCl diet, respectively) and injected into uninephrectomized recipient S rats for 2 weeks (0.45 ml, twice a day, i.v.). Serum from hypertensive rats injected for 14 days significantly increased BP by 14 mm Hg (143 vs 129, p less than 0.05), pressor responses to angiotensin II (ANGII) by 45% (p less than 0.005), pressor responses to norepinephrine (NE) by 38% (p less than 0.025), and Na concentration in the aortic wall of recipient rats by 5.9% (p less than 0.05), compared to the effects of the injection of serum from normotensive S rats. These results imply that hypertensive S serum contains a hypertensinogenic substance and that this serum factor produces a mild hypertension in the recipient rats and also contributes importantly to the hypertension in donor S rats. Dahl salt-resistant rats (R rats) on either 8% or 0.11% NaCl had normal BP. Their sera produced no differences in BP or in pressor responses in recipient rats. Hence 8% NaCl, which produced no hypertension, also induced no hypertensinogenic serum factors in R rats. We sought to determine whether nephrectomy would alter these humoral factors. The BP averaged 139 mm Hg in rats receiving normotensive sham-nephrectomized S serum vs 154 in those receiving hypertensive sham-nephrectomized S serum, 15 mm Hg higher (p less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Circulating digitalis-like substance is increased in DOCA-salt hypertension

Blood pressure and digitalis-like substance were measured in the plasma of control, salt-treated, and DOCA-salt treated rats. Blood pressure in DOCA-salt treated rats was significantly higher than that of either control or salt-treated animals. Digitalis-like activity was measured by two methods, radioimmunoassay for digoxin, and a receptor binding assay employing a rat brain synaptosomal membrane fraction. Digoxin-like immunoreactivity in plasma was not detected in either control or salt-treated rats, but was detected in DOCA-salt treated rats. Receptor binding activity in salt-treated rats was slightly but significantly higher than that of control rats. In DOCA-salt treated rats, receptor binding activity was significantly higher than that of salt-treated rats. Partial purification of the digitalis-like substance in plasma was performed by gel filtration using Sephadex G-25. Two peaks containing digoxin-like immunoreactivity were observed. Receptor binding activity, as well as Na+-K+ ATPase inhibitory activity, was detected only in the second peak, in which approximately 70% of the digoxin-like immunoreactivity was eluted. These results indicate that a circulating digitalis-like substance is increased in DOCA-salt hypertension.

Rat thymocyte sodium transport. Effects of changes in sodium balance and experimental hypertension

The wide range of membrane electrolyte transport abnormalities associated with experimental, genetic, and essential hypertension may either reflect an underlying global change in the cell membrane or may be directly related to the underlying disturbance that causes hypertension or to changes in sodium balance. To investigate this further, we studied sodium transport and intracellular electrolyte composition in the thymocytes of normal rats undergoing salt loading or depletion, and in rats with renovascular, mineralocorticoid, or spontaneous hypertension compared to appropriate age-matched normotensive control rats. In normotensive rats, although there was no significant difference between the blood pressures at the two extremes of sodium balance, sodium loading caused a nonsignificant rise in sodium transport, whereas sodium depletion was associated with a significant fall in sodium transport and intracellular sodium. When cells from salt-loaded or normal animals were incubated in a medium containing their own serum, sodium transport was slightly stimulated in both, but there was no significant difference in the sodium efflux-rate constant of thymocytes obtained from rats on the normal as opposed to the high salt intake. Compared to normotensive rats, there was no significant change in the sodium efflux-rate constant in any of the hypertensive rat models studied. However, the sodium efflux-rate constant fell with age in both the spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar-Kyoto normotensive rats. The present studies show that dietary sodium intake and aging had considerable effects on rat thymocyte sodium transport, but neither of these changes was related to a change in blood pressure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Atrial natriuretic factor: reduced cardiac content in spontaneously hypertensive rats

We recently discovered a potent natriuretic factor in cardiac atrial tissue. The present experiments were designed to determine whether hypertension was associated with altered tissue content of this atrial natriuretic factor. Extracts were prepared using fresh atria from spontaneously hypertensive rats of the Okamoto strain and from their Wistar-Kyoto controls. Two groups of anesthetized, normovolemic rats (Sprague-Dawley) were used to measure the renal natriuretic and chloriuretic effect of each type of extract. Results indicate that atrial content of natriuretic factor is reduced in hypertensive rats compared to control animals. We speculate that chronic release of the factor could have depleted atrial stores, and that increased blood levels of atrial natriuretic factor may be involved in the generation and maintenance of hypertension in this model.

Potassium infusion attenuates avoidance-saline hypertension in dogs

Previous studies have shown that a combination of avoidance conditioning schedules and increased intake of salt and water results in progressive hypertension in dogs within 14 days. The present experiments investigated the effects of increasing potassium intake upon blood pressure and heart rate of dogs made hypertensive by avoidance conditioning and salt-water loading. Two daily 30-minute sessions of free-operant avoidance conditioning were presented for 36 days during which isotonic saline was continuously infused into the arterial circulation (1.2 liters/day; 185 mEq Na+). Daily mean levels of systolic (22 +/- 5 mm Hg) and diastolic (12 +/- 4 mm Hg) pressure increased progressively in each dog during Days 1-14. Infusion of potassium chloride (100 mEq/day) from Days 15-28 resulted in progressive decreases in daily mean levels of systolic (-11 +/- 2 mm Hg) and diastolic (-8 +/- 1 mm Hg) pressure in each dog over this period. From Day 29-36, systolic (8 +/- 1 mm Hg) and diastolic (5 +/- 1 mm Hg) pressure increased. Normotensive dogs not on the avoidance schedule showed no change in arterial pressure in response to 14 days of potassium chloride infusion. These experiments show that the level of potassium, as well as sodium, intake significantly determines blood pressure levels in this form of experimental hypertension.

Reduced sodium-potassium dependent ATPase and its possible role in the development of hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats

Ouabain-sensitive Na+-K+-ATPase activity in red cell membranes, kidney cortical tissue, myocardium and adrenal glomerulosa tissue was examined in SHR and WKY rats at 6, 9, and 12 weeks of age. Red cell membrane enzyme activity was decreased (p less than 0.001) at 9 and 12 weeks of age in SHR. This activity was negatively correlated (r = -0.69, p less than .005) with blood pressure at 9 and 12 weeks. Kidney cortical enzyme activity was also decreased (p less than 0.001) in the SHR at 9 and 12 weeks of age. This decreased kidney enzyme activity was also inversely related to 9 and 12 week blood pressures (r = -0.71, p less than 0.001), urinary Na excretion (r = -0.62, p less than .005), and urinary Ca and K excretion. Myocardial enzyme activity was not decreased until 12 weeks in the SHR, and adrenal glomerulosa activity was not different in the SHR and WKY at any of the three ages that this enzyme was measured. Of the tissues examined decreased Na+-K+-ATPase activity in the erythrocyte membrane and in kidney cortical tissue appears to coincide best with the development of hypertension in the SHR. This study lends further support to the concept that alterations in membrane cation transport may be an important factor in the development of high blood pressure in SHR.

Ion transport in hypertension

A wide range of abnormalities of membrane sodium and potassium transport can be demonstrated in patients with essential hypertension, and in rats with genetic hypertension and with some forms of experimental hypertension. In the human red cell increased permeability to sodium and potassium, increased ouabain-sensitive sodium pumping, lithium-sodium counter-transport, and frusemide-sensitive co-transport have been described; by contrast, in the human leucocyte sodium pumping is reduced. In the spontaneously hypertensive rat and the rat with mineralocorticoid-induced hypertension, increased permeability to sodium and potassium, with increased ouabain-sensitive pumping, is shared by the red cell and the arterial smooth muscle. This abnormality is associated with decreased cell-membrane affinity for calcium and increased cell-membrane viscosity. It is proposed that in essential hypertension the decreased membrane affinity for calcium is a primary pathogenetic change giving rise to secondary changes in sodium and potassium transport.

Role of a humoral sodium-potassium pump inhibitor in experimental low renin hypertension

Recent evidence suggests that the vascular sodium-potassium pump suppression previously observed in animals with various models of low renin hypertension results from a circulating heat stable ouabain-like agent. It appears to come from or be influenced by the anteroventral third ventricle area of the brain and its action on blood vessels results in depolarization of the smooth muscle cell. Suppression of the vascular sodium-potassium pump, with ouabain for example, increases contractile activity and the contractile responses to vasoactive agents. Thus the humoral pump inhibitor may be involved in the genesis and maintenance of experimental low renin hypertension.

Sodium pump activity in arteries of rats with Goldblatt hypertension

Several laboratories have reported evidence suggesting abnormalities in the activity of the sarcolemmal sodium pump in vascular smooth muscle in hypertension. The present experiments were designed to investigate the relationship of such changes to the status of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and body fluid volumes. We assessed sodium pump activity in vitro in sodium-loaded tail artery and thoracic aorta freshly excised from rats with chronic one-kidney, one clip, and two-kidney, one clip hypertension, and from appropriate normotensive control rats. 86Rb uptake in the absence (total uptake) and presence of 1.0 mM ouabain (ouabain-insensitive uptake) was measured, and ouabain-sensitive uptake (nmole/mg dry weight/18 min) was calculated. There were increases in plasma renin activity in the two-kidney, one clip rats only. In the hypertensive rats there were significant increases (up to +60%) in the ouabain-sensitive and total 86Rb uptakes in both tail artery and aorta. The magnitude of increases in arterial tissue uptakes in the two forms of Goldblatt hypertension, and in one-kidney, one clip hypertensive rats given 0.9% saline to drink for 2 to 3 days before sacrifice, were similar. Further sodium loading of aortas from normotensive control rats did not increase their uptake. The results of this study provide no evidence for decreases in sodium pump activity, instead indicating that there are increases in the activity of the pump in the sarcolemma or arterial smooth muscle studied in vitro. These increases in pump activity do not appear to be related to altered activity of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, to changes in body fluid volumes, or to increases in intracellular concentrations of sodium. Increases in numbers or concentration of sarcolemmal pump molecules or in their turnover rate may be involved. However, in vitro 86Rb uptake by tail artery and aorta may not reflect the status of sodium pump activity in resistance vessels in vivo.