The role of a humoral sodium-potassium pump inhibitor in low-renin hypertension.

We have recently concentrated our efforts on bioassay of plasma supernatant from animals with experimental low-renin hypertension (one-kidney, one-wrapped in dogs, and one-kidney, one-clip, and reduced renal mass in rats) for sodium-potassium pump inhibiting activity. We have observed changes compatible with inhibitory activity by using three different in vitro bioassays: 1) ouabain-sensitive 86Rb uptake by the normal rat tail artery, 2) short-circuit current in the toad bladder, and 3) membrane potential in the rat tail artery. We have also generated evidence suggesting that the humoral pump inhibitor(s) comes from or is influenced by the anteroventral third ventricle area of the brain and that it acts on the vascular smooth muscle cell at least in part by depolarizing the membrane. These findings are compatible with our 1976 hypothesis in which we proposed that in volume-expanded hypertension there is a circulating agent that suppresses cardiovascular membrane Na+,K+-ATPase, which results in reduced activity of the Na+-K+ pump and hence increased contractility of heart, arteries, and veins and that in blood vessels the increased contractility may be secondary to depolarization. We attempt to relate these findings to those in the literature on monovalent ion transport in blood cells of hypertensive subjects.