It is not well described the pathophysiology of renal injuries caused by a high salt intake in humans. The authors analyzed the relationship between the 24-hr urine sodium-to-creatinine ratio (24HUna/cr) and renal injury parameters such as urine angiotensinogen (uAGT/cr), monocyte chemoattractant peptide-1 (uMCP1/cr), and malondialdehyde-to-creatinine ratio (uMDA/cr) by using the data derived from 226 hypertensive chronic kidney disease patients. At baseline, the 24HUna/cr group or levels had a positive correlation with uAGT/cr and uMDA/cr adjusted for related factors (P<0.001 for each analysis). When we estimated uAGT/cr in the 24HUna/cr groups by ANCOVA, the uAGT/cr in patients with ≥200 mEq/g cr was higher than in patients with <100 mEq/g cr (708 [95% CI, 448-967] vs. 334 [95% CI, 184-483] pg/mg cr, P=0.014). Similarly, uMDA/cr was estimated as 0.17 (95% CI, 0.14-0.21) pM/mg cr in patients with <100 mEq/g cr and 0.27 (95% CI, 0.20-0.33) pM/mg cr in patients with ≥200 mEq/g cr (P=0.016). During the 16-week follow-up period, an increase in urinary sodium excretion predicted an increase in urinary angiotensinogen excretion. In conclusion, high salt intake increases renal renin-angiotensin-system (RAS) activation, primarily, and directly or indirectly affects the production of reactive oxygen species through renal RAS activation.
Keywords: Angiotensinogen; Chronic Renal Insufficiency; Renin; Sodium Chloride.