PCR-SSCP ANALYSIS OF THE PROMOTER REGION OF THE RENIN GENE IN PATIENTS WITH ALDOSTERONE-PRODUCING ADENOMAS

1. Aldosterone-producing adenomas (APA) of the adrenal gland may be re sponsive or un-responsive to the renin-angiotensin system, 2. We have described increased expression of renin mRNA in angiotensin-responsive aldosterone-producing adenomas (AII-R-APA) compared with angiotensin- un-responsive aldosterone-producing adenomas (AII-U-APA) and significa ntly different allelic frequencies of the BglI, TaqI and HinfI restric tion fragment length polymorphisms of the renin gene between the two g roups, 3. An area including the 5' flanking region -500 bp from exon 1 , exon 1 and intron A contained no gross insertions or deletions when studied by a long polymerase chain reaction technique, 4. In the prese nt study, polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymor phism analysis (PCR-SSCP) revealed no single base pair alteration in t he proximal promoter region ( -600 bp to transcription start) of the r enin gene in patients with APA (either AII-U-APA or AII-R-APA) when co mpared with normal subjects, 5. Therefore, mutations in this regulator y region do not appear to explain the different levels of renin gene e xpression observed in these two subtypes of APA.