Potassium in Hypertension

European Coordinator:

Robert FENTON, Aarhus University (Denmark)

North American Coordinator:

Paul WELLING, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (USA)

Members:

Eric DELPIRE, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville (USA)
David ELLISON, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland (USA)
Olivier STAUB, University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
Michael STOWASSER, University of Queensland, Brisbane (Australia)

Hypertension (HTN) is a major threat to public health, affecting over a billion people on the planet and contributing to cardiovascular and kidney disease in excess of five million people annually. The underlying cause of HTN is largely unknown, but current evidence indicates that it is rooted in complex genetic and environmental interactions. While high dietary salt (sodium) consumption has been considered to be a primary environmental trigger, growing evidence indicates that dietary potassium deficiency plays an important role as well. This TNE will examine how the kidney handles potassium, concentrating on the molecular, structural, and physiologic basis of the sodium-potassium pathway, as well as its genetic determinants. Ultimately they hope to find new therapeutic targets to control or even prevent hypertension.