ENDOTHELIAL CONTROL OF VASCULAR TONE - COUPLING OF ACTIVE VASODILATION IN THE KIDNEY TO RENIN SECRETION

The vascular endothelium plays an essential role in regulating the contractility of the adjacent smooth muscle cell through its secretory and metabolic properties. One of these well known properties is the conversion of angiotensin I into angiotensin II. But the endothelium also secretes at least three compounds able to diffuse to the smooth muscle cell and exerting a paracrine action: these are the prostacyclin (PGI2), the endothelium derived relaxing factor (EDRF) and the endothelin 1. The secretion of these different vasoactive compounds by endothelial cells is triggered by mechanical events, such as the shear stress, or by the effect of several humoral factors locally released, for example from platelets. The compound NO (nitric oxide) is produced by the endothelial enzyme NO synthase from its precursor L-arginine, and is responsible for the vasodilatory and antiplatelets properties of EDRF. NO, by activiting the soluble guanylate cyclase in the smooth muscle cell, is responsible for the endothelium dependent vasodilatation. We observed in an isolated perfused rat kidney that the compound L-NAME (N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine methyl ester), a competitive inhibitor of NO synthase blocking the production of NO, induces renal vasoconstriction and inhibits renin release. This suggests that not only the renal vasoconstriction but also the renal vasodilatation are active processes, permanently regulated by vasoactive compounds such as EDRF. It seems also that EDRF plays an important role in maintaining the secretion of renin. It can be hypothetized that an abnormality in the release or fate of EDRF might perhaps contribute to high blood pressure, by both a direct effect on the vascular tone and an indirect effect on the release of renin, which in turn regulates also the renal and systemic hemodynamics.