Purification of human plasma inactive renin by immunoaffinity chromatography on profragment-specific IgG

Effects of prorenin on blood pressure and plasma renin concentrations in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats

To examine the possible activation of prorenin in the circulation, recombinant rat prorenin was intravenously given to pentobarbital-anesthetized rats. Bolus injection of prorenin at the dose of 100 micrograms angiotensin I (ANG I).h-1.kg-1 into Wistar rats, leading to a 15-fold increase in plasma prorenin concentrations (from 27 +/- 6 to 393 +/- 75 ng ANG I.h-1.ml-1) at 5 min after the injection, did not affect blood pressure, heart rate, and plasma active renin concentrations throughout experiments. On the other hand, the administration of active renin at the dose of 1, 3, and 10 micrograms ANG I.h-1.kg-1 increased mean blood pressure of Wistar rats by 8 +/- 2, 15 +/- 2, and 27 +/- 4 mmHg, respectively. Similar results were obtained in Wistar rats at 18 h after bilateral nephrectomy. These results confirmed no activation of prorenin in the circulation of normotensive rats. The activation of prorenin was also examined on both stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) and 18 h-nephrectomized SHRSP. There was no rise in blood pressure or plasma active renin concentrations in both groups of SHRSP after injection of prorenin. Thus the elevated plasma active renin in SHRSP [Shibota, M., A. Nagaoka, A. Shino, and T. Fujita. Am. J. Physiol. 236 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 5): H409-H416, 1979] seems to be caused by the enhanced release of active renin from the kidney rather than the activation of circulating prorenin.

Similarity between physicochemical properties of recombinant rat prorenin and native inactive renin

Rat prorenin was synthesized by Chinese-hamster ovary cells transfected with an expression vector containing rat preprorenin cDNA sequences, then purified by concanavalin A-Sepharose chromatography and h.p.l.c. on G3000SW. The molecular mass of purified prorenin was 46,000 Da, as determined by h.p.l.c. on G3000SW. Immunoblot analysis indicated that recombinant prorenin cross-reacted with anti-(mature renin) antibody and two kinds of antibodies recognizing the N-terminus and C-terminus of the prosegment of rat prorenin. Recombinant prorenin was bound to a Cibacron Blue-Sepharose column and eluted with 1.4 M-NaCl, but was not retained by an octapeptide renin inhibitor (H-77)-Sepharose column. Trypsin activation of prorenin increased the renin activity 110-fold, caused binding to an H-77-Sepharose column and nullified the reactivity to the above two kinds of anti-prosegment antibodies, findings indicating that the activation of prorenin with trypsin is due to the cleavage of the prosegment. Rat plasma inactive renin, partially purified by h.p.l.c. on G3000SW, had much the same physicochemical characteristics as the recombinant prorenin. These results provide evidence that rat plasma inactive renin is prorenin. Recombinant prorenin is a useful material for examining the physiological role of circulating prorenin.