In a study published recently in the journal Hypertension, researchers found that sodium channels outside the kidney play a key role in maintaining normal blood pressure and functioning kidneys. University of Pittsburgh geneticists and nephrologists discovered extra-renal sodium channels that may be useful for developing medications that lower blood pressure without raising potassium levels.
Senior authors of the study are Thomas Kleyman, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Ryan Minster, PhD, assistant professor of human genetics at Pitt’s School of Public Health.
Kleyman said, “This study may help us someday identify people with specific, subtle genetic mutations that predispose them to a type of hypertension acting outside the kidneys. Knowing that, we can better help that person control their blood pressure.”
