Age and the Renal Blood Supply: Renal Vascular Responses to Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibition in Healthy Humans

Abstract

The limited renal vascular response to vasodilators we had documented in earlier studies does not extend to ACE inhibitors. Although ACE inhibitors lack the pharmacological specificity required to prove a role for angiotensin II (Ang II), the data are compatible with a contribution of Ang II to the maintenance of renal vascular tone that does not change with increasing age, at least to 70 years of age.

The implications of anatomical and functional changes of the aging kidney: with an emphasis on the glomeruli

“…Nevertheless, it is clear that the aging kidney shows impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilatation (an nitric oxide–dependent response), particularly in the presence of hypertension (and albuminuria). 58–60 Accumulation of asymmetric dimethyl arginine, an endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthetase, may be partly responsible for the imbalance of vasodilatation and vasoconstriction in the aging kidney. 61 In a classic study of renal vascular responses in normal aging men, Hollenberg et al .…”