Vascular renin-like activity in aorta and mesenteric artery of the rat.

Vascular renin-like enzymatic activity (VRLA) has been measured in the artery wall of control and experimental rats. The following groups have been studied: 1-normal salt diet; 2-high salt diet; 3-low salt diet; 4-bilateral nephrectomy (Nx); 5-sham operated for Nx. VRLA was evaluated in the aorta (ARLA) and in the mesenteric arteries (MRLA). Blood samples were obtained for plasma renin activity (PRA) determination. High salt diet decreased PRA, ARLA and MRLA whereas low salt diet increased PRA, did not change ARLA and decreased MRLA. PRA was almost undetectable in Nx animals while ARLA showed a 40% reduction and MRLA was unchanged in these animals. These results would indicate that the changes in PRA induced different variations in the renin-like content of the aorta and the mesenteric artery. The differences could be mainly due to two factors: 1) the capacity of the vascular tissue to bind circulating renin and 2) the capacity of each tissue to synthetize renin-like material in situ.