Leukocyte ionized calcium and sodium content and blood pressure in humans.

Abstract

SUMMARY The relationship between leukocyte ionized calcium concentration, sodium content, and blood pressure was studied in normotensive subjects with (n = 17) and without (n = 21) a family history of hypertension and in untreated patients with essential hypertension (n = 22). There was a highly significant correlation between intracellular ionized calcium and mean supine blood pressure (measured on the same occasion) in normal subjects with no family history of hypertension (r = + 0.73, p< 0.01). This relationship was lost in normal subjects with a family history of hypertension, and in hypertensive patients there was a nonsignificant negative correlation between intracellular ionized calcium and blood pressure ( r = +0.08 and -0.31, respectively). Intracellular ionized calcium was similar in the normotensive groups (both, 126 ± 7 nmol/L) and slightly but nonsignificantly elevated in hypertensive patients (143 ± 10 nmol/L; p = 0.09). There was no correlation between intracellular ionized calcium and sodium content in any group (r<0.1). These results indicate that while leukocyte ionized calcium in normotensive subjects with no family history of hypertension may reflect smooth muscle contractility resulting in the positive correlation between leukocyte ionized calcium and blood pressure, this relationship is lost in hypertensive patients and subjects predisposed to hypertension. This may be due to an altered relationship between leukocyte and smooth muscle calcium handling in these subjects or to non-calcium-mediated influences on blood pressure. (Hypertension 8: 483-488, 1986) KEY WORDS • cytosolic calcium • sodium • leukocyte • blood pressure

Alteration of Cation Metabolism: a Prototype Etiological Model of Hypertension.

“…Calcium-dependent ATPase activity is low in these red cells (63,64), whose membrane vesicles have a low level of calmodulin-stimulated calcium transport (65). Reports on abnormally high cellular calcium in EH have also been published (66)(67)(68). Calcium ATPase activity is abnormally high in platelets from patients with EH (69).…”