[The renin-angiotensin system and blood pressure]

The renin-angiotensin system plays an important role in the regulation of blood pressure. Recent progress in molecular biology enables us to investigate the molecular mechanism of essential hypertension. Accumulating data suggest that the disorder of the renin-angiotensin system is not essentially a primary factor of hypertension, but it apparently plays an indispensable role in the pathogenesis of hypertension. Many researchers including us have shown that the renin-angiotensin system also contributes the development of various hypertension-related organ damages by its hypertrophic, vasculotoxic or unknown mechanisms. Gene diagnosis and newly developed antihypertensive drug therapy including gene therapeutics will open the new era of individualized and etiology-based hypertension treatment.