AJP - Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 254, Issue 2 E187-E192, Copyright © 1988 by American Physiological Society
Dissociation between plasma renin and plasma aldosterone induced by dietary glycine hydrochloride
T. A. Kotchen, G. P. Guthrie Jr, L. D. Boucher, J. N. Lorenz and C. E. Ott
Department of Medicine, University of Kentucky, School of Medicine, Lexington 40536.
We evaluated the effects of selective dietary chloride loading (without
sodium) on plasma renin activity (PRA) and plasma aldosterone in the
sodium-deprived Sprague-Dawley rat. Three groups of animals were fed one of
the following diets for 13 days: 1) low NaCl; 2) high NaCl; or 3) low
sodium, high chloride, provided as glycine hydrochloride. Compared with
NaCl-deprived animals, PRA and plasma aldosterone were lower (P less than
0.01) in animals fed low sodium high chloride, whereas aldosterone in
animals fed glycine hydrochloride was higher (P less than 0.01) than that
of NaCl-deprived animals. In contrast, plasma concentrations of
corticosterone and 18-hydroxycorticosterone were not increased by selective
chloride loading. Glycine chloride-fed animals were acidotic and had
elevated plasma concentrations of potassium and ionized calcium. Thus
stimulation of aldosterone by selective chloride loading is not related to
PRA or ACTH but may be due to a direct effect of acidosis or an indirect
effect of acidosis on potassium and/or calcium. Additionally, selective
chloride loading appears to stimulate the conversion of
18-hydroxycorticosterone to aldosterone.
