Urinary angiotensinogen excretion is associated with blood pressure in obese young adults

Abstract

Intrarenal RAS has been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension. It was recently reported that urinary angiotensinogen excretion levels are associated with intrarenal RAS. However, few markers predicting intrarenal RAS have been investigated in obese young subjects. The present study evaluated the association between blood pressure and intrarenal RAS activity, inflammation and oxidative stress in obese young adults. Urinary angiotensinogen excretion and urinary monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1, and urinary thiobarbituric acid reaction substance (TBARS) as markers of intrarenal RAS activity, inflammation, and oxidative stress, respectively, were determined from morning urine of 111 young male adults. Participants were divided into two groups based on the body mass index (BMI). Natural log-transformed urinary angiotensinogen excretion level was significantly associated with blood pressure, MCP-1 excretion, and TBARS excretion elevation in the obese group (BMI ≥25 kg/m²). Multivariable analyses showed that every 1 standard deviation increase in natural-log transformed urinary angiotensinogen and MCP-1 excretion, but not TBARS excretion level was associated with elevated blood pressure in the obese group. These results indicate that urinary angiotensinogen and MCP-1 excretion were associated with blood pressure elevation in this population of obese young adults. It suggested that inappropriate RAS activity and inflammation precedes hypertension in obese young subjects and urinary angiotensinogen could be a screening maker for hypertension in young obese subjects.

• Angiotensinogen
• blood pressure
• intrarenal renin-angiotensin system
• obese young adults
• urinary biomarker

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Biomedical Research Unit of Tohoku University Hospital for the use of their equipment. We thank Hiroko Ito, Kiyomi Kisu, and the staff members of the Division of Nephrology, Endocrinology, and Vascular Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine for their technical assistance.

Declaration of interest

All authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funding

This study was supported in part by Grants for Scientific Research (Nos. 2330024 and 24790832) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.