Genetics and pathophysiology of low-renin arterial hypertension

The review is devoted to the consideration of genetic determination and pathophysiology of one of the forms of hypertensive disease known as low-renin hypertension. At frst glance, the development of low-renin hypertension is “unnatural”, as renin, as a key enzyme of the renin-angiotensin system, which plays an important role in the development of hypertensive disease, is suppressed in low-renin hypertension. At the same time, the most important drugs actual in the treatment of hypertensive disease belong to the renin-angiotensin system blockers. This contradiction was resolved by a study of genetic and pathophysiological mechanisms of hypertension in some groups of patients with characteristic symptoms bringing these people together. Genetic studies of some recent decades using both family analysis and modern molecular genetic technologies have revealed the main mechanisms underlying low-renin hypertension, which can be classifed as certain syndromes with well-defned genetic and clinical features. These syndromes include cases of sporadically occurring somatic mutations in the cells of the adrenal cortex, which begin to produce aldosterone in increased amounts. Also, several oligo