Kininogenase of the aortic wall in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

We determined kinin-generating activity (kininogenase) in the thoracic aorta of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) at age 5 and 15 weeks and in appropriately age-matched Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. Aorta homogenates were incubated with partially purified dog kininogen, and the resulting kinins were extracted with ethanol. The kinins were determined by a sensitive kinin radioimmunoassay (RIA). Kininogenase activity was expressed as mean +/- SEM, picogram kinin generated/mg x protein/h. Active kininogenase in SHR was approximately one-third in 5-week-old and about one-fifth in 15-week-old rats when compared with their normotensive controls. Total kininogenase activity in SHRs was approximately 80% and 58% of the normotensive controls at ages 5 weeks and 15 weeks, respectively. Active enzyme was 14% of the total in 5-week-old SHRs, and it was only 5% of the total in 15-week-old SHRs. It seems unlikely that the changes in kininogenase are secondary to hypertension because blood pressor is only marginally elevated at 5 weeks according to the literature. We hypothesize that genetic hypertensive rats may suffer from an inherent deficiency in the kininogenase activity of the vascular wall. The deficiency may also be in the mechanism of activation of precursor enzyme.