A comparative study of the renin-like activity in the heart and vascular system under various experimental conditions

Renin-like activity in the heart and aorta of rats being slightly modified by binephrectomy, its variations in DOCA hypertension and infarcted ventricular muscle were studied. The daily i.p. administration of DOCA 12 mg/kg body weight for 35 days in male adult rats resulted in a significant decrease of renin activity in plasma and tissues of the heart, aorta, hypothalamus and hypophysis. In contrast to renin-like activity, cathepsin D measured in the same animals increased in all organs, except for the plasma. Similar changes of renin-like activity were observed in salt-loaded animals with 1.7% sodium chloride solution ad libitum for 35 days. In the infarcted myocardial ventricular muscle of the rats and rabbits, the tissue isorenin showed a tendency to decrease, associated with a significant increase in cathepsin D activity. Like in aorta, isorenin seems to be a different enzymatic entity of cathepsin D in the myocardial tissue. The measurement of isorenin content of the vascular endothelium and cardiac muscle fibers seems to reveal much higher amounts in the coronary vascular endothelium than in the myocardial fibres. The activation of the enzymatic angiotensin forming mechanisms in the coronary vascular bed could be one of the risk factors in myocardial infarction.