The role of angiotensin II in renal growth.

Angiotensin II (AII) has many of the features of the archetypical growth factors and appears to be a growth regulator in the kidney. AII binds to specific cell surface receptors present on a number of different renal cell types including mesangial, vascular smooth muscle, tubular and interstitial cells, and activates many of the intracellular signalling pathways associated with cell growth. In vitro AII can potentiate the mitogenic effect of other growth factors such as EGF. AII induces hypertrophy of vascular smooth muscle cells but the role of AII in the growth of other renal cell types has not been systematically studied.