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Dopamine, the Kidney, and Hypertension

  • Hypertension: Kidney, Sodium, and Renin-Angiotensin System (R Carey and A Mimran, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

There is increasing evidence that the intrarenal dopaminergic system plays an important role in the regulation of blood pressure, and defects in dopamine signaling appear to be involved in the development of hypertension. Recent experimental models have definitively demonstrated that abnormalities in intrarenal dopamine production or receptor signaling can predispose to salt-sensitive hypertension and a dysregulated renin-angiotensin system. In addition, studies in both experimental animal models and in humans with salt-sensitive hypertension implicate abnormalities in dopamine receptor regulation due to receptor desensitization resulting from increased G-protein receptor kinase 4 (GRK4) activity. Functional polymorphisms that predispose to increased basal GRK4 activity both decrease dopamine receptor activity and increase angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor activity and are associated with essential hypertension in a number of different human cohorts.

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Acknowledgments

These studies were supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (DK62794, DK51265) and funds from the Veterans Administration.

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No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA

    Raymond C. Harris & Ming-Zhi Zhang

  2. Nashville Veterans Affairs Hospital, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA

    Raymond C. Harris

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Correspondence to Raymond C. Harris.

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Harris, R.C., Zhang, MZ. Dopamine, the Kidney, and Hypertension. Curr Hypertens Rep 14, 138–143 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11906-012-0253-z

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