| Abstract: | ![]()
Circulating inhibitors of the Na+ pump have been proposed as participating in sodium excretion, extracellular and vascular volume regulation and as hypertensiogenic agents. The presence of digitalis-like compounds in human plasma has been investigated by measuring its ability to compete with tritiated ouabain for binding to the digitalis site of red blood cells. Their activities in plasma from either hypertensive or volume expanded patients were compared. High levels were found in plasma from 37 p. cent of the untreated patients with essential hypertension, 64 p. cent of patients with end-stage renal failure and 71 p cent of acromegalic patients in the hypersecreting phase. The patients of these two last classes have been selected as being normotensives and without family history of hypertension. An increased activity of the inhibitor should more likely be linked to the positive Na+ balance and the volemic expansion which characterise these last two diseases than to high blood pressure. The observations that the activity of the inhibitor is correlated with the plasma volume in acromegalic patients, it returns to normal values after hemodialysis in renal insufficiency or successful therapy of acromegaly and the decrease in its activity is proportional to the weight lost during dialysis in uremic patients, agree with this proposal. |
