Long-term arterial hypertension leads to heart and kidney injury. The goal of our study was to evaluate the effect of MR deletion in endothelial cells on organ damage in a model of deoxycorticosterone acetate/salt–induced hypertension. MR deletion reduced expression of the pro-inflammatory vascular cell adhesion molecule VCAM-1 in the heart and thus ameliorated cardiac remodeling without differences in blood pressure. However, MR deletion did not prevent renal inflammation, fibrosis and glomerular injury. Our findings suggest that different molecular mechanisms are involved in hypertensive cardiac vs. renal injury.
Lother, A, Fürst, D, Bergemann, S, Gilsbach, R, Grahammer, F, Huber, TB, Hilgendorf, I, Bode, C, Moser, M, Hein, L (2016) Deoxycorticosterone Acetate/Salt-Induced Cardiac But Not Renal Injury Is Mediated By Endothelial Mineralocorticoid Receptors Independently From Blood Pressure. Hypertension 67 (1):130-8. PMID:26553231