Immunochemical Differences between Angiotensin I-Forming Enzymes in Man

1. Human plasma, amniotic fluid and acidified amniotic fluid were incubated at pH 5.5 with the same concentrations of human plasma renin substrate and rat plasma renin substrate. They produced three to eight times more angiotensin I with human than with rat renin substrate. By contrast, human brain extracts generated 20 times more angiotensin I when incubated with rat plasma renin substrate than with human plasma renin substrate. 2. Serial dilutions of anti-(human renin) antibody inhibited, in a dose-dependent manner, the production of angiotension I when plasma, amniotic fluid and brain extracts were incubated with human plasma renin substrate. They also inhibited the production of angiotensin I when plasma and amniotic fluid were incubated with rat plasma renin substrate. They were ineffective on the angiotensin I generation by human brain extracts acting on rat plasma renin substrate. 3. Affinity chromatography on an haemoglobin-Sepharose gel separated the fraction of brain extract acting on human renin substrate and inhibited by anti-(human renin) antiserum; this was not retained on the gel at pH 3.3. Part of the angiotensin I-forming activity detected by rat renin substrate hydrolysis was not retained on the gel and part was eluted at pH 8.5. These angiotensin I-forming activities did not hydrolyse human renin substrate, and were not neutralized by anti-(human renin) antibody. 4. These results demonstrate that a renin, immunochemically identical with renal, plasma and amniotic fluid renin, is present in the human brain. Other angiotensin I-forming activity, acting on an heterologous substrate at a more acidic pH, is also present in human brain.