Cloning and characterization of marmoset renin: Comparison with human renin

The poor interspecies conservation of the renin-angiotensin system prevents the use of nonprimate in vivo models to test renin inhibitors. Thus the sm all New-World monkey marmoset is used in many instances as a model. However , large differences between the potencies of renin inhibitors as measured i n human and marmoset plasma were observed. To understand this phenomenon, w e cloned marmoset renin and angiotensinogen. They were highly homologous to their human counterparts, except for a six-residue deletion in the marmose t renin propeptide. Human and marmoset recombinant renins were found in vit ro to display comparable activities, suggesting that the observed differenc es in plasma apparent affinity of inhibitors could be due to different plas ma protein binding of the inhibitors.