Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Video Abstracts
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • Complement Biology and Therapeutics (May 2025)
    • Evolving insights into MASLD and MASH pathogenesis and treatment (Apr 2025)
    • Microbiome in Health and Disease (Feb 2025)
    • Substance Use Disorders (Oct 2024)
    • Clonal Hematopoiesis (Oct 2024)
    • Sex Differences in Medicine (Sep 2024)
    • Vascular Malformations (Apr 2024)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • In-Press Preview
    • Clinical Research and Public Health
    • Research Letters
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Editorials
    • Commentaries
    • Editor's notes
    • Reviews
    • Viewpoints
    • 100th anniversary
    • Top read articles

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Video Abstracts
  • In-Press Preview
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Research Letters
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Editorials
  • Commentaries
  • Editor's notes
  • Reviews
  • Viewpoints
  • 100th anniversary
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
Top
  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a comment
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need help? Email the journal
  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article (30)

Advertisement

Research Article Free access | 10.1172/JCI111230

Characterization of inactive renin ("prorenin") from renin-secreting tumors of nonrenal origin. Similarity to inactive renin from kidney and normal plasma.

S A Atlas, T E Hesson, J E Sealey, B Dharmgrongartama, J H Laragh, M C Ruddy, and M Aurell

Find articles by Atlas, S. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Find articles by Hesson, T. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Find articles by Sealey, J. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Find articles by Dharmgrongartama, B. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Find articles by Laragh, J. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Find articles by Ruddy, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Find articles by Aurell, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Published February 1, 1984 - More info

Published in Volume 73, Issue 2 on February 1, 1984
J Clin Invest. 1984;73(2):437–447. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI111230.
© 1984 The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Published February 1, 1984 - Version history
View PDF
Abstract

Inactive renin comprises well over half the total renin in normal human plasma. There is a direct relationship between active and inactive renin levels in normal and hypertensive populations, but the proportion of inactive renin varies inversely with the active renin level; as much as 98% of plasma renin is inactive in patients with low renin, whereas the proportion is consistently lower (usually 20-60%) in high-renin states. Two hypertensive patients with proven renin-secreting carcinomas of non-renal origin (pancreas and ovary) had high plasma active renin (119 and 138 ng/h per ml) and the highest inactive renin levels we have ever observed (5,200 and 14,300 ng/h per ml; normal range 3-50). The proportion of inactive renin (98-99%) far exceeded that found in other patients with high active renin levels. A third hypertensive patient with a probable renin-secreting ovarian carcinoma exhibited a similar pattern. Inactive renins isolated from plasma and tumors of these patients were biochemically similar to semipurified inactive renins from normal plasma or cadaver kidney. All were bound by Cibacron Blue-agarose, were not retained by pepstatin-Sepharose, and had greater apparent molecular weights (Mr) than the corresponding active forms. Plasma and tumor inactive renins from the three patients were similar in size (Mr 52,000-54,000), whereas normal plasma inactive renin had a slightly larger Mr than that from kidney (56,000 vs. 50,000). Inactive renin from each source was activated irreversibly by trypsin and reversibly by dialysis to pH 3.3 at 4 degrees C; the reversal process followed the kinetics of a first-order reaction in each instance. The trypsin-activated inactive renins were all identical to semipurified active renal renin in terms of pH optimum (pH 5.5-6.0) and kinetics with homologous angiotensinogen (Michaelis constants, 0.8-1.3 microM) and inhibition by pepstatin or by serial dilutions of renin-specific antibody. These results indicate that a markedly elevated plasma inactive renin level distinguishes patients with ectopic renin production from other high-renin hypertensive states. The co-production of inactive and active renin by extrarenal neoplasms provides strong presumptive evidence that inactive renin is a biosynthetic precursor of active renin. The unusually high proportion of inactive renin in plasma and tumor extracts from such patients is consistent with ineffective precursor processing by neoplastic tissue, suggesting that if activation of "prorenin" is involved in the normal regulation of active renin levels it more likely occurs in the tissue of origin (e.g., kidney) than in the circulation.

Browse pages

Click on an image below to see the page. View PDF of the complete article

icon of scanned page 437
page 437
icon of scanned page 438
page 438
icon of scanned page 439
page 439
icon of scanned page 440
page 440
icon of scanned page 441
page 441
icon of scanned page 442
page 442
icon of scanned page 443
page 443
icon of scanned page 444
page 444
icon of scanned page 445
page 445
icon of scanned page 446
page 446
icon of scanned page 447
page 447
Version history
  • Version 1 (February 1, 1984): No description

Article tools

  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a comment
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need help? Email the journal

Metrics

  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article (30)

Go to

  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
Advertisement
Advertisement

Copyright © 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts