Abstract P276: Tissue Primacy of Chymase as an Angiotensin II-forming Enzyme from Angiotensin-(1-12)
Breaking the prevailing acceptance of ACE primacy as the Ang II-forming enzyme, we have demonstrated that cardiac Ang II production in human and rat heart tissues are primarily mediated by chymase. In this study, we compared the affinity of cardiac chymase to generate Ang II from Ang-(1-12) or Ang I in plasma membranes (PMs) isolated from the diseased left atria of humans and SHR left ventricle. PMs (50-100 μg) were exposed to increasing concentrations of either Ang-(1-12) or Ang I substrate (0-300 μM) for 30 min at 37 o C in the presence of lisinopril (200 μM). The K m and V max of human cardiac chymase (Mean ± SE) were 29 ± 0.9 vs 87 ± 8.8 μM and 57 ± 1.4 vs 145 ± 3.7 μM/min/mg for Ang-(1-12) and Ang I substrates, respectively. Similarly, the K m and V max of rat cardiac chymase were 64 ± 6.3 vs 142 ± 17 μM and 13.2 ± 1.3 vs 1.9 ± 0.2 μM/min/mg for Ang-(1-12) and Ang I substrate, respectively. These data suggest that cardiac chymase has a higher affinity for Ang-(1-12) substrate compared to Ang I in both human and rat heart tissues. Further, our kinetic data show that the catalytic efficiency (ratio of V max /K m ) of human and rat chymase were 1.2 and 15.4-fold higher for Ang-(1-12) substrate compared to Ang I. Overall, our findings suggest that Ang-(1-12), rather than Ang I, is the preferred substrate for chymase in the generation of Ang II by human and rat heart tissue.