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(Hypertension. 2001;38:1246.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Historical Perspective

History About the Discovery of the Renin-Angiotensin System

Nidia Basso; Norberto A. Terragno

Instituto de Investigaciones Cardiológicas, Facultad de Medicina. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Correspondence to Nidia Basso, Instituto de Investigaciones Cardiológicas, Marcelo T. de Alvear 2270, C1122AAJ Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail nidiabasso{at}yahoo.com

Abstract

The history of the discovery of the renin-angiotensin system began in 1898 with the studies made by Tigerstedt and Bergman, who reported the pressor effect of renal extracts; they named the renal substance renin based on its origin. In 1934, Harry Goldblatt induced experimental hypertension in dogs by clamping a renal artery. About 1936, simultaneously in the Medical School of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in the Eli-Lilly Laboratories in Indianapolis, 2 independent groups of researchers, using the Goldblatt technique to produce experimental hypertension, demonstrated renal secretion of a pressor agent similar to renin. In the following years, both teams described the presence of a new compound in the renal vein blood of ischemic kidneys. This agent was extracted from blood with 70% acetone and had a short pressor effect. The final conclusion was that renin acted enzymatically on a plasma protein to produce the new substance. In Buenos Aires, it was called hypertensin; in the United States, angiotonin. In 1958, Eduardo Braun Menéndez from Argentina and Irving H. Page from the United States agreed to name it angiotensin.

Key Words: renin • angiotonin • angiotensin • renin substrate • renin activator

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