Related Experiment Videos
Erythrocyte and plasma Ca2+, Mg2+ and cell membrane adenosine triphosphatase activity in patients with essential
1Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hebei Academy of Medical Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China.
Objective:
To assess the relationships between plasma and intracellular Ca2+, Mg2+ and blood cell membrane adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activity in normotensive and hypertensive subjects.
Methods:
Plasma and intracellular Ca2+, Mg2+ were measured with atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and red blood cell membrane Na(+)-K+ ATPase and Ca(2+)-ATPase activities were determined with colorimetric method in 55 patients with essential hypertension and 32 normotensive controls.
Results:
The results showed that the hypertensive group consistently demonstrated a significant decreased activity of ATPase studied, with significantly lower plasma Ca2+ and higher cytosolic Ca2+ levels when compared with those in normotensive group (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05, respectively). No significant differences were found in either plasma Mg2+ or intracellular Mg2+ level between the two groups.
Conclusions:
This study suggests that patients with essential hypertension have widespread depression of cell membrane Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase and Ca(2+)-ATPase activities with plasma Ca2+ depletion and cytosolic Ca2+ overload, which may reflect an underlying membrane abnormality in essential hypertension. The cellular abnormalities may be related to the defective transport mechanisms that in turn may be aggravated by plasma Ca2+ depletion.