CYTOCHEMICALLY DETECTABLE GLUCOSE-6-PHOSPHATE DEHYDROGENASE-STIMULATING NA-K-ATPASE-INHIBITING ACTIVITY OF PLASMA AND HYPOTHALAMUS IN REDUCED RENAL MASS HYPERTENSION

Plasma from normal humans and rats on a high sodium intake, and from patients and rats suffering from hereditary hypertension has an increased cytochemically detectable glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-stimulating/Na-K-ATPase inhibiting activity. The hypothalamic content of this activity is also increased by a high sodium intake and in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). Using cytochemical techniques, the ability of plasma and the hypothalamus of reduced renal mass hypertensive rats to stimulate G6PD activity and to inhibit Na-K-ATPase was measured. The mean G6PD-stimulating capacity of the plasma from the hypertensive and normotensive groups of rats was 351 +/- 67 and 11.42 +/- 1.98 G6PD-stimulating units/ mL respectively (P < .001). The time courses of the ability of plasma from a hypertensive and a normotensive rat to inhibit fresh tissue Na-K-ATPase after 2, 4, 6, and 8 min of exposure demonstrated that the hypertensive rat plasma had a greater capacity to inhibit Na-K-ATPase. The mean G6PD-stimulating capacity of the hypothalamus from the hypertensive and normotensive groups of rats was 252,263 +/- 147,958 X 10(3) and 6.38 +/- 2.35 X 10(3) G6PD-stimulating units per hypothalamus, respectively (P < .01). It is proposed that the raised concentration of cytochemically detectable G6PD-stimulating/Na-K-ATPase-inhibiting substance in both genetic and nongenetic forms of hypertension may be a manifestation of a communal hypertensinogenic mechanism. Thus, the raised plasma concentration would have a direct peripheral vascular constricting effect and the high hypothalamic concentration would be responsible for a central nervous hypertensinogenic effect.