Does antihypertensive therapy modify chronic allograft failure?

Hypertension after renal transplantation continues to affect 50% or more of patients, despite use of modern immunosuppressive regimens. Relationships between poor control of blood pressure and reduced chronic allograft survival have been clearly demonstrated, and are analogous to the well-known acceleration of progressive renal disease by coexisting hypertension. It is likely, although to date it has not been formally proven by prospective study, that effective blood pressure control has a beneficial effect on chronic allograft outcome, as in progressive dysfunction of native kidneys. A further key question is whether differing classes of antihypertensive therapy may have differing effects on long-term graft outcome. It has been proposed that glomerular hypertension, hyperfiltration and hypertrophy, secondary both to inadequate nephron mass and to loss of functioning nephrons, may contribute to chronic allograft failure. If this is true, then use of converting enzyme inhibitors may particularly benefit long-term graft outcome. However, post-transplant hypertension in cyclosporine-treated patients is associated with sodium retention and renin system suppression, and a relative lack of renoprotective action of ACE inhibitors might be predicted in this context. An alternative hemodynamic factor underlying chronic allograft failure is glomerular ischemia, secondary to the vascular changes associated with chronic rejection and to cyclosporine-related afferent arteriolar vasoconstriction. In this setting, calcium channel blockers which lower systemic blood pressure in combination with afferent arteriolar vasodilatation may improve long-term allograft outcome. New strategies with a similar rationale include endothelin receptor antagonists and neutral endopeptidase inhibitors such as candoxatril, which in acute experimental and clinical studies reverse cyclosporine-induced reductions in renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate. Long-term prospective controlled comparative studies are needed to assess the effect of all these differing therapeutic approaches on chronic allograft outcome.