Changes in plasma renin activity and aldosterone concentration in response to endothelin injection in dogs

The effects of endothelin on the renin-aldosterone system were examined by injecting it intravenously at low (40 pmol/kg) and high (400 pmol/kg) doses into pentobarbital-anesthetized dogs. Plasma renin activity and aldosterone concentration together with hemodynamic parameters were measured before and 60 min after endothelin injection. The lower dose of endothelin induced no significant increase in mean blood pressure or total peripheral resistance. It caused a slight decrease of plasma renin activity from 10.3 +/- 1.6 to 5.9 +/- 1.3 micrograms.l-1.h-1 (p less than 0.1) and a decrease of aldosterone concentration from 364 +/- 68 to 231 +/- 58 ng/l (p less than 0.05) with an increase in total peripheral resistance (p less than 0.05), but it did not cause any clear change in the plasma renin activity or aldosterone concentration. Thus, endothelin increases the blood pressure mainly by vasoconstriction. The finding of a slight decrease in the plasma renin activity after the lower dose of endothelin, together with our previous finding that endothelin inhibits renin release from isolated rat glomeruli, suggests that endothelin inhibits renin release in vivo. With the higher dose of endothelin, stimulation of renin release secondary to renal vasoconstriction might have counteracted the direct inhibitory action of endothelin. The decrease in aldosterone concentration may have been due to the direct inhibitory action of endothelin on aldosterone release or it may be a secondary effect induced by suppression of plasma renin activity.