Vitamin D depletion aggravates hypertension and target-organ damage

Background: we tested the controversial hypothesis that vitamin d depletion aggravates hypertension and target-organ damage by influencing renin.methods and results: four-week-old double-transgenic rats (dtgr) with excess angiotensin (ang) ii production due to overexpression of the human renin (hren) and angiotensinogen (hagt) genes received vitamin d-depleted (n=18) or standard chow (n=15) for 3 weeks. the depleted group had very low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin d levels (mean±sem; 3.8±0.29 versus 40.6±1.19 nmol/l) and had higher mean systolic bp at week 5 (158±3.5 versus 134.6±3.7 mm hg,p<0.001),week 6 (176.6±3.3 versus 162.3±3.8 mm hg,p<0.01),and week 7 (171.6±5.1 versus 155.9±4.3 mm hg,p<0.05). vitamin d depletion led to increased relative heart weights and increased serum creatinine concentrations. furthermore,the mrnas of natriuretic peptides,neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin,hren,and rren were increased by vitamin d depletion. regulatory t cells in the spleen and in the circulation were not affected. ang metabolites,including ang ii and the counter-regulatory breakdown product ang 1 to 7,were significantly up-regulated in the vitamin d-depleted groups,while ace-1 and ace-2 activities were not affected.conclusions: short-term severe vitamin d depletion aggravated hypertension and target-organ damage in dtgr. our data suggest that even short-term severe vitamin d deficiency may directly promote hypertension and impacts on renin-angiotensin system components that could contribute to target-organ damage. the findings add to the evidence that vitamin d deficiency could also affect human hypertension. © 2015 the authors. published on behalf of the american heart association,inc.,by wiley blackwell.