Increased angiotensin-converting enzyme activity in essential hypertension.

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Abstract
We compared the activities in serum of 12 kinds of proteases including renin, angiotensin-converting enzyme, aminopeptidases, kallikrein, and other endopeptidases, between control subjects and patients with essential hypertension. In the patients, the activity of angiotensin-converting enzyme was increased by more than two times, although the activities of most of other proteases were significantly decreased, when compared with the age-matched controls. A multivariate study using discriminant function analysis suggested that angiotensin-converting enzyme plays an important role in the protease changes in the patients. The results altogether indicate that the pathogenesis of essential hypertension is closely related to an imbalance between vasoconstrictive and vasodilatative peptides such as angiotensins and kinins.

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