KKidney disease could result from hypertension and ischemia/hypoxia. Key mediators of cellular adaptation to hypoxia are oxygen-sensitive hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)s which are regulated by prolyl-4-hydroxylase domain (PHD)-containing dioxygenases. However, HIF activation can be protective as in ischemic death or promote renal fibrosis in chronic conditions. This study tested the hypothesis that increased HIF-1α consequent to reduced PHD expression contributes to the attendant hypertension and target organ damage in deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)/salt hypertension and that PHD inhibition ameliorates this effect. In rats made hypertensive by DOCA/salt treatment (DOCA 50 mg/kg s/c; 1% NaCl orally), PHD inhibition with dimethyl oxallyl glycine (DMOG) markedly attenuated hypertension (P<0.05), proteinuria (P<0.05) and attendant tubular interstitial changes and glomerular damage (P<0.05). Accompanying these changes, DMOG blunted the increased expression of kidney injury molecule (KIM)-1 (P<0.05), a marker of tubular injury and reversed the decreased expression of nephrin (P<0.05), a marker of glomerular injury. DMOG also decreased collagen I staining (P<0.05), increased serum nitrite (P<0.05) and decreased serum 8-isopostane (P<0.05). However, the increased HIF-1α expression (P<0.01) and decreased PHD2 expression (P<0.05) in DOCA/salt hypertensive rats was not affected by DMOG. These data suggest that reduced PHD2 expression with consequent increase in HIF-1α expression probably results from hypoxia induced by DOCA/salt treatment with the continued hypoxia and reduced PHD2 expression evoking hypertensive renal injury and collagen deposition at later stages. Moreover, a PHD inhibitor exerted a protective effect in DOCA/salt hypertension by mechanisms involving increased nitric oxide production and reduced production of reactive oxygen species.
Objectives: Although the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet lowers blood pressure in adults with hypertension, how kidney function impacts this effect is not known. We evaluated whether Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) modifies the effect of the DASH diet on blood pressure, markers of mineral metabolism, and markers of kidney function.
Methods: Secondary analysis of the DASH-Sodium trial, a multicenter, randomized, controlled human feeding study that evaluated the blood pressure lowering effect of the DASH diet at three levels of sodium intake. Data from 92 participants with pre-hypertension or stage 1 hypertension during the 3450 mg /day sodium diet assignment contributed to this analysis. Stored frozen plasma and urine specimens were used to measure kidney related laboratory outcomes.
Results: Effects of the DASH diet on blood pressure, phosphorus, intact parathyroid hormone, creatinine, and albuminuria were not modified by baseline eGFR (mean 84.5 ± 18.0 ml/min/1.73 m2, range 44.1 to 138.6 ml/min/1.73 m2) or the presence of chronic kidney disease (N=13%).
Conclusions: The impact of the DASH diet on blood pressure, markers of mineral metabolism, and markers of kidney function does not appear to be modified by eGFR in this small subset of DASH-Sodium trial participants with relatively preserved kidney function. Whether greater reduction in eGFR modifies the effects of DASH on kidney related measures is yet to be determined. A larger study in individuals with more advanced kidney disease is needed to establish the efficacy and safety of the DASH diet in this patient population.
Similar to preeclamptic women, hypertension in the chronic Reduced Uterine Perfusion Pressure Rat Model Of Preeclampsia (RUPP) is associated with increased CD4+ T cells, cytokines, sFlt-1 and agonistic autoantibodies to the AngII receptor (AT1-AA). We examined the effect inhibition of T cell co-stimulation in RUPP rats treated with (A) (abatacept, 250 mg/kg, infused i.v. at gestation day 13), on hypertension and sFlt-1, TNF-α and AT1-AA. RUPP surgical procedure was performed on day 14. On day 19 MAP increased from 94+2 mmHg in Normal Pregnant (NP) to 123 ± 3 mmHg in RUPP control rats. This response was attenuated by Abatacept, MAP was 104 ± 2 mmHg in RUPP ± A, and 96 ± 2 mmHg NP ± A. Percent circulating CD4+ T cells were 66 ± 3% in RUPPs compared to 55 ± 3% NP rats (p<0.04) but were normalized in RUPP ± A rats (54 ± 3%). The twofold increase in TNF alpha seen in RUPPs (277 ± 47 pg/ml) was decreased to 80 ± 18 pg/ml in RUPP+A. Placental sFlt-1 was reduced 70 % to 151 ± 28 in RUPP ± A compared 488 ± 61 pg/ml in RUPP (p<0.001). AT1-AA decreased from 20 ± 0.8 bpm in control RUPP to 6 ± 0.7 bpm in RUPP ± A. We next determined the effect of RUPP in causing hypertension in pregnant T cell deficient rats by examining MAP in NP (123 ± 5 mmHg) and RUPP athymic nude rats (123 ± 7 mmHg). In the absence of T cells, hypertension in response to placental ischemia was completely abolished. Collectively these data indicate that CD4+ Tcells in response to placental ischemia play an important role in the pathophysiology of hypertension associated with preeclampsia.
Gender difference has been suggested as a risk factor for developing cardiovascular and renal diseases in humans and experimental animals. As a major sex hormone, progesterone was reported to compete with cardiotonic steroid binding to Na/K-ATPase. Our previous publication demonstrated that cardiotonic steroids (e.g., marinobufagenin) play an important role in the development of experimental uremic cardiomyopathy. We also observed that the putative mineralocorticoid antagonists, spironolactone and its major metabolite canrenone, antagonize binding of cardiotonic steroids to Na/K-ATPase in a competitive manner and also ameliorate experimental uremic cardiomyopathy induced by partial nephrectomy. In the following studies, we noted that progesterone displayed competitive inhibition of cardiotonic steroid binding to Na/K-ATPase and partially inhibited collagen synthesis induced by marinobufagenin in cultured cardiac fibroblasts. Therefore, we sought to examine whether female rats displayed less uremic cardiomyopathy than male rats when subjected to partial nephrectomy. Although partial nephrectomy caused the induction of smaller increases in blood pressure of female rats, they appeared to be similarly susceptible to cardiac remodeling induced by partial nephrectomy in terms of hypertrophy and fibrosis as age-matched male rats. The possible explanations for our findings are therefore discussed.