PMID: 9162438Jan 1, 1996Paper

Molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance in arterial hypertension

Blood Pressure. Supplement
L A Sechi, E Bartoli

Abstract

The associations between insulin resistance, hyperinsulinaemia, and hypertension are well recognized. Hyperinsulinaemia induces hypertension through increased renal tubular reabsorption of sodium and water, increased sympathetic nervous system activity, proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells, and alterations of transmembrane cation transport. At physiological concentrations, insulin decreases urinary sodium excretion, an action mediated by binding to specific high-affinity receptors. Insulin resistance is present also in strains of rats with genetic hypertension (spontaneously hypertensive and Dahl salt-sensitive rats) that can be utilized as models to study the molecular mechanisms of this abnormality. In normal rats, the number and mRNA levels of insulin receptors in the kidney are inversely related with dietary sodium content, suggesting the existence of a feedback mechanism that limits insulin-induced sodium retention when extracellular fluid volume is expanded. We have investigated the relationships between dietary sodium intake and renal insulin receptors in spontaneously hypertensive rats and have found that in this strain the feedback mechanism is abolished. In addition, spontaneously hypertensive rats have decre...Continue Reading

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