Salt-sensitivity of blood pressure is an abnormal phenotype that confers increased cardiovascular morbidity. We discuss its underlying renal mechanisms, including the role of systems that regulate renal salt handling. We review knockout and congenic strains that have unraveled participation of several genes in rodents inbred to produce pure salt-sensitive and salt-resistant substrains. In humans, salt-sensitivity is a continuous variable, hence, defined with arbitrary cutoffs for blood pressure responses to salt-loading or deprivation. Nonetheless, clustering of phenotypic characteristics in salt-sensitive subjects suggests an inherited component for this trait. This is supported by relationships between salt-sensitivity and gene polymorphisms in renal transporters, vasoactive substances and oxidative systems. Identification of biochemical or genetic markers of salt-sensitivity for use in the clinic would improve risk stratification of hypertensive and prehypertensive subjects. Understanding of its pivotal mechanisms may lead to specific therapies to decrease the cardiovascular risk associated with this trait in humans.

Salt Sensitivity of Blood Pressure

The field of mitochondrial ion channels has recently seen substantial progress, including the molecular identification of some of the channels. An integrative approach using genetics, electrophysiology, pharmacology, and cell biology to clarify the roles of these channels has thus become possible. It is by now clear that many of these channels are important for energy supply by the mitochondria and have a major impact on the fate of the entire cell as well. The purpose of this review is to provide an up-to-date overview of the electrophysiological properties, molecular identity, and pathophysiological functions of the mitochondrial ion channels studied so far and to highlight possible therapeutic perspectives based on current information.

Mitochondrial Channels: Ion Fluxes and More

The simplest definition of salt sensitivity of blood pressure (SSBP) states that it is a physiological trait present in rodents and other mammals, including humans, by which the blood pressure (BP) of some members of the population exhibits changes parallel to changes in salt intake. In animals, the trait has been inbred such that the salt-sensitive (SS) ones will sustain increases in BP with salt loading and decreases with salt depletion, whereas the salt resistant (SR) ones will not. In humans, the trait is normally distributed; therefore, the distinction between SS and SR members of the population has been made by choosing an arbitrary magnitude of the salt-induced change in BP to define the groups. Regardless of possible causation by abnormalities of sodium handling, the SS phenotype is not usually characterized by alterations in salt balance (eg, impaired natriuresis or expanded plasma volume) but rather by a hypertensive response to maintain it.

In an unselected population, SSBP is a continuous, normally distributed quantitative trait.1 As with any other trait with these characteristics, there is the issue of whether population members with the largest and smallest quantities of the trait represent the randomness of its distribution or are qualitatively different from the population at large. An example of this controversy is the old analyses of the unimodality versus bimodality of BP incidence or prevalence in humans that tried to determine whether hypertension is a distinct entity or simply an extreme of the gaussian distribution of BP.2 The development of the spontaneously hypertensive rat by Japanese investigators3 showing that the trait could be selected by inbreeding made it clear that hypertension had a genetic component. The gaussian distribution of population BP is probably the result of a random mixture of prohypertensive and antihypertensive genes and genetic variants in a …

Salt Sensitivity of Blood Pressure: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

KATP channels are integral to the functions of many cells and tissues. The use of electrophysiological methods has allowed for a detailed characterization of KATP channels in terms of their biophysical properties, nucleotide sensitivities, and modification by pharmacological compounds. However, even though they were first described almost 25 years ago (Noma 1983, Trube and Hescheler 1984), the physiological and pathophysiological roles of these channels, and their regulation by complex biological systems, are only now emerging for many tissues. Even in tissues where their roles have been best defined, there are still many unanswered questions. This review aims to summarize the properties, molecular composition, and pharmacology of KATP channels in various cardiovascular components (atria, specialized conduction system, ventricles, smooth muscle, endothelium, and mitochondria). We will summarize the lessons learned from available genetic mouse models and address the known roles of KATP channels in cardiovascular pathologies and how genetic variation in KATP channel genes contribute to human disease.

KATP Channels in the Cardiovascular System.

Hypertension is the most common chronic disease in the world, yet the precise cause of elevated blood pressure often cannot be determined. Animal models have been useful for unraveling the pathogenesis of hypertension and for testing novel therapeutic strategies. The utility of animal models for improving the understanding of the pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of hypertension and its comorbidities depends on their validity for representing human forms of hypertension, including responses to therapy, and on the quality of studies in those models (such as reproducibility and experimental design). Important unmet needs in this field include the development of models that mimic the discrete hypertensive syndromes that now populate the clinic, resolution of ongoing controversies in the pathogenesis of hypertension, and the development of new avenues for preventing and treating hypertension and its complications. Animal models may indeed be useful for addressing these unmet needs.

Animal Models of Hypertension: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

The renal outer medullary potassium channel (ROMK, KCNJ1 ) mediates potassium recycling and facilitates sodium reabsorption through the Na + /K + /2Cl − cotransporter in the loop of Henle and potassium secretion at the cortical collecting duct Human genetic studies indicate that ROMK homozygous loss-of-function mutations cause type II Bartter syndrome, featuring polyuria, renal salt wasting, and hypotension; humans heterozygous for ROMK mutations identified in the Framingham Heart Study have reduced blood pressure ROMK null mice recapitulate many of the features of type II Bartter syndrome We have generated an ROMK knockout rat model in Dahl salt-sensitive background by using zinc finger nuclease technology and investigated the effects of knocking out ROMK on systemic and renal hemodynamics and kidney histology in the Dahl salt-sensitive rats The ROMK −/− pups recapitulated features identified in the ROMK null mice The ROMK +/− rats, when challenged with a 4% salt diet, exhibited a reduced blood pressure compared with their ROMK +/+ littermates More importantly, when challenged with an 8% salt diet, the Dahl salt-sensitive rats with 50% less ROMK expression showed increased protection from salt-induced blood pressure elevation and signs of protection from renal injury Our findings in ROMK knockout Dahl salt-sensitive rats, together with the previous reports in humans and mice, underscore a critical role of ROMK in blood pressure regulation

Heterozygous Disruption of Renal Outer Medullary Potassium Channel in Rats Is Associated With Reduced Blood Pressure

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Yan Cui

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Heterozygous Disruption of Renal Outer Medullary Potassium Channel in Rats Is Associated With Reduced Blood Pressure