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(Hypertension. 2008;52:37.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Brief Reviews

Lewis K. Dahl Memorial Lecture

The Renin-Angiotensin System and Aging

From the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC.

Correspondence to Debra I. Diz, Hypertension and Vascular Research Center, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1032. E-mail ddiz@wfubmc.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Dr Lewis K. Dahl identified many of the relationships that underlie our current thinking and focus of research on hypertension. Among the first to establish the interactions between salt and hypertension, the realization that genetic factors played a major role in how the kidney responded to salt loads¹ led to development of the genetically predisposed Dahl salt-sensitive rat. His research, although not specifically directed toward aging, recognized that the effects of high-salt diets were not necessarily immediate. In fact, he suggested that at least one third of the life span was required for salt-induced changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP).

I am very grateful for the honor of presenting the Dahl lectureship on work, which, over the past several years, has had aging as the focus. The emphasis has been on the autonomic nervous system, as influenced by the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), specifically, the balance between angiotensin (Ang) II and Ang-(1-7) and the contributions of brain cardiovascular areas to the constellation of changes occurring with advancing age. The overall message derived is that, although the brain RAS plays a major role in all of the age-related changes in cardiovascular and metabolic function, neither the SBP nor the metabolic changes appear to be initiating factors in the activation of the intrarenal RAS or the decline in kidney function during aging (Figure 1).

View larger version (14K):   Figure 1. Diagram depicting the proposed relationships among SBP and metabolic dysfunction in the regulation of the intrarenal RAS and renal function during aging.

	Differential Regulation of the Circulating and Intrarenal RAS During Aging

 
Components of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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