Louise Bjørkholt Andersen, MD; Lukasz Przybyl, MSc; Nadine Haase, PhD; Frauke von Versen-Höynck, MD; Fatimunnisa Qadri, PhD; ...... Friedrich C. Luft.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Vitamin D Depletion Aggravates Hypertension and Target-Organ Damage Louise Bjørkholt Andersen, MD; Lukasz Przybyl, MSc; Nadine Haase, PhD; Frauke von Versen-H€ oynck, MD; Fatimunnisa Qadri, PhD; Jan Stener Jørgensen, PhD; Grith Lykke Sorensen, PhD; Palle Fruekilde, MSc; Marko Poglitsch, PhD; Istvan Szijarto, PhD; Maik Gollasch, PhD; Joerg Peters, MD; Dominik N. Muller, PhD; Henrik Thybo Christesen, PhD;* Ralf Dechend, MD*
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 (meanSEM; 3.80.29 versus 40.61.19 nmol/L) and had higher mean systolic BP at week 5 (1583.5 versus 134.63.7 mm Hg, P
