Effect of dietary sodium intake on the metabolism of prostaglandins in the kidney in hypertensive patients.

To investigate the role of renal prostaglandins (PGs) in the renal handling of sodium, urinary excretion of PGE, PGF2 alpha and PGF2 alpha MUM (main urinary metabolite of PGF2 alpha) were measured after various manipulations of dietary sodium intake in 8 hypertensive patients. A low sodium intake increased urinary excretion of PGF2 alpha MUM (p less than 0.05), but failed to change urinary excretion of PGE and PGF2 alpha. In contrast, a high sodium intake increased urinary excretion of PGE (p less than 0.01) and decreased urinary excretion of PGF2 alpha MUM (p less than 0.02). A low sodium intake decreased the ratio of urinary PGE/PGF2 alpha MUM and high sodium increased it (both p less than 0.001). There was a significant positive correlation between urinary excretion of sodium and that of PGE (p less than 0.001). Additional oral administration of potassium chloride did not change urinary excretion of PGs. These results may suggest that dietary sodium intake may be one of the regulators of the metabolism of PGs in the kidney, supporting the hypothesis that renal PGE has a natriuretic action in humans.