Immunoreactive glandular kallikrein in plasma during alterations of urinary kallikrein excretion.

To determine whether maneuvers known to modify immunoreactive urinary kallikrein excretion (iUKK) also alter the concentration of immunoreactive glandular kallikrein (iGKK) in plasma, we measured iGKK in the plasma and urine of rats before, at 1 week, and at 3 weeks after induction of two-kidney, one clip hypertension, low sodium intake, and DOCA-salt hypertension. Glandular kallikrein in plasma and urine was measured by radioimmunoassay. Clipping of a renal artery decreased iUKK from 11.7 +/- 0.5 microgram/24 hr/100 g body weight (BW) to 7.8 +/- 0.5 and 8.2 +/- 0.5 at 1 and 3 weeks after surgery without significantly changing iGKK in plasma. The level of iGKK in the plasma did not correlate significantly with iUKK in the clipped group. Low sodium intake significantly increased iUKK, which rose from 6.6 +/- 0.3 microgram/24 hr/100 g BW to 9.6 +/- 0.5 and 13.9 +/- 0.7 after 1 and 3 weeks. In addition, low sodium intake appeared to increase iGKK in plasma, and a significant positive correlation was observed between iUKK and iGKK in plasma in the group on low sodium diet (r = 0.65, p less than 0.01). DOCA-salt treatment increased iUKK significantly from 10.4 +/- 0.6 microgram/24 hr/100 g BW to 17.1 +/- 1.4 and 22.6 +/- 2.3 at 1 and 3 weeks after. The iGKK in plasma increased from 13.8 +/- 0.5 to 15.4 +/- 0.7 ng/ml (p less than 0.05) at 1 week after the DOCA-salt treatment began, but it returned to pretreatment levels 3 weeks later (14.5 +/- 0.7 ng/ml, n.s.).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)