New evidence linking salt and hypertension | New evidence linking salt and hypertension. [editorial]
1981
In support of the linkage between salt intake and essential hypertension, rats were inbred to produce a normotensive strain resistant to salt, and a hypertensive-predisposed strain very sensitive to salt. An explanation for this difference may lie in the tendency of the salt-sensitive kidney to retain sodium while compensating by circulating a substance which promotes sodium excretion and causes hypertension. Results of human research point to a similar mechanism in humans. A substance has been isolated from urine which causes transient natriuresis upon intravenous injection. The erythrocytes of patients with essential hypertension (and of some of their relatives without it) have been shown to exhibit an abnormality of sodium transport; this may prove to be a genetic marker. Hypertensive patients also have leukocytes with depressed sodium pump activity, possibly caused by a sodium transport inhibitor. The tendency to retain sodium contributes to a high intracellular calcium concentration, which in turn leads to heightened vascular tone and peripheral resistance. Further research is needed to clarify why genetic susceptibility to hypertension is not found bimodally distributed in a given population, and to determine if it is possible to detect salt-sensitive future hypertensive patients. (CJ)
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