Effect of various components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system on angiotensinogen production in a monolayer culture of adult rat hepatocytes.

A monolayer culture of adult rat hepatocytes was used to study the effect of various components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (angiotensin II, aldosterone and angiotensinogen), and intracellular sodium depletion (by ouabaine addition) on the angiotensinogen production rate. Normal hepatocytes synthesized linearly angiotensinogen for 6 h at a mean rate of 110 pg angiotensin I generated/mg intracellular protein each h. The addition of hydrocortisone (0.1 microM) to the culture medium significantly enhanced the angiotensinogen production after 2 h of incubation (P less than 0.05), being about 2-fold higher than normal control values at the 6th h of incubation. In contrast to this increase, the addition of angiotensin II (70 nM) to the medium produced a higher stimulatory effect on angiotensinogen synthesis, being the differences with the control significants after 1 h of incubation (P less than 0.01). At the 6th h of incubation, angiotensin II enhanced the angiotensinogen production over 2 fold in relation to the control group. No change in the angiotensinogen production rate was observed in monolayer culture of hepatocytes in the presence of aldosterone (1 microM), angiotensinogen (0.1 microM) or ouabaine (10 microM). These results provide further evidence that angiotensinogen synthesis is subject to a positive feed-back mechanism by angiotensin II, indicating that this mechanism takes place at physiological levels of plasma AII.