RENIN and ANGIOTENSIN a Survey of Some Aspects J
Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/pgmj.42.485.153 on 1 March 1966. Downloaded from POSTGRAD. MED. J. (1966), 42, 153 RENIN AND ANGIOTENSIN A survey of some aspects J. J. BROWN, B.Sc,. M.B., B.S., M.R.C.P. D. L. DAVIES, M.B., B.S. A. F. LEVER, 'B.Sc., M.B., B.S., M.R.C.P. J. I. S. ROBERTSON, 'B.Sc., M.B., B.S., M.R.C.P. St. Mary's Hospital, London, W.2. THE APPEARANCE of an article on renin and Wiberg, 1958; Cook & Pickering, 1959; Cook, angiotensin in a symposium devoted to hyper- 1960), although at present it remains undecided tension may suggest that these substances have whether the macula densa (Bing & Wiberg, a function in hypertension which is set apart 1958) or the granular cells of the afferent arteri- from their role in normal physiology. Any such ole (Hartroft, Sutherland & Hartroft, 1964) are impression would be misleading. Renin, angio- the major storage site (see reviews by Bing, tensin, aldosterone, sodium balance, and renal 1963; Cook, 1963). function remain closely inter-related irrespective Although the presence of renin in blood was of the height of the arterial pressure. We have, long disputed, it is now known that small therefore, attempted a wider survey in the hope quantities circulate in peripheral venous and that this may, in the process, clarify some arterial plasma (Lever, Robertson & Tree, 1963; aspects of hypertension. Lever & Robertson, 1964; Brown, Davies, This review is unbalanced in at least two Lever, Robertson & Tree, 1964 k,l).
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