SUMMARY The urinary kallikrein system was studied during hyponatremia associated with water and vasopressin administration in rats. Two groups of animals were studied. In the experimental group (n = 5), vasopressin (0.4 U/day) was injected intramuscularly for 7 days, and water (15%-20% body weight per day) was given via a stomach tube. The control group (n = 6) received only vasopressin. In the experimental group, plasma sodium concentration (PNa) decreased from 143.2 ± 0.5 to 130.8 ± 1.8 (m ± SEM) mmol/liter (5th day, p < 0.01) along with plasma osmolality. Urinary kallikrein-like activities (UkaV) increased from 99.1 ± 7.5 to 172.6 ± 23.5 /xmolmin/day (100 g body weight) (5th day, p < 0.05; 6th day, p < 0.05; and 7th day, p < 0.05) after the administration of vasopressin. Uric acid clearance (Cua) increased from 0.153 ± 0.014 to 0.275 ± 0.041 ml/min (5th day, p < 0.05; 7th day, p < 0.05). No change was observed in urinary aldosterone excretion (UAldV), creatinine clearance, or blood pressure. UkaV correlated with Cua (r = 0.81, p < 0.01) and with the degree of change of PNa (r = -0.79, p < 0.01), respectively. In the control group, no change was observed in the above parameters. A significant relationship between UkaV and fractional Na clearance (r = 0.60, p < 0.01) was observed. We conclude that the urinary kallikrein system in rats may be stimulated during hyponatremia when induced by water and vasopressin. This increased activity is probably the result of volume expansion associated with water and vasopressin and may have some relationship to fractional Na clearance in the kidney. (Hypertension 6: 511-518, 1984) KEY WORDS • antidiuretic hormone • volume expansion • vasopressin sodium clearance • kallikrein • kinin A S a possible factor in the pathogenesis of hypertension, the kallikrein-kinin system has been extensively studied after Margolius et al.1 reconfirmed the early finding by Elliot and Nuzum 2 that patients with essential hypertension excreted less kallikrein in the urine than normotensive patients. Studies of urinary kallikrein, 3 " the precise localization of renal kallikrein, 5 " 10 and kinin binding in the kidney"" 14 have been reported. However, there are several points of disagreement with regards to the mechanism or physiological role of the kallikrein system. Firstly, the kallikrein-kinin system correlates with urinary sodium excretion in some conditions, 15 but not in others.
"18 Secondly, aldosterone directly stimulates kallikrein activity in kidney homogenates, although urinary kallikrein increases only after several days of deoxycorticosterone administration to dogs. in two acute experiments, 20 2I antidiuretic hormone (ADH) has been reported both to stimulate and not to stimulate urinary kallikrein. Therefore, it would be of interest to evaluate the chronic effects of ADH on the kallikrein-kinin system. Similar to the syndrome of ADH excess is the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of ADH. In this situation, urinary kallikrein-like activity increased during hyponatremia.22 " In add...