The renin angiotensin system is a major regulator of blood pressure and a target for many anti-hypertensive therapies; yet the efficacy of these treatments varies between the sexes. We use published data for systemic RAS hormones to build separate models for four groups of rats: male normotensive, male hypertensive, female normotensive, and female hypertensive rats. We found that plasma renin activity, angiotensinogen production rate, angiotensin converting enzyme activity, and neutral endopeptidase activity differ significantly among the four groups of rats. Model results indicate that angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers induce similar percentage decreases in angiotensin I and II between groups, but substantially different absolute decreases. We further propose that a major difference between the male and female RAS may be the strength of the feedback mechanism, by which receptor bound angiotensin II impacts the production of renin.

肾素血管紧张素系统是血压的主要调节剂，也是许多抗高血压疗法的目标。然而，这些治疗方法的疗效因性别而异。我们使用公开的系统性RAS激素数据为四组大鼠建立单独的模型：雄性血压正常，雄性高血压，雌性血压正常和雌性高血压大鼠。我们发现四组大鼠的血浆肾素活性，血管紧张素原产生率，血管紧张素转化酶活性和中性内肽酶活性显着不同。模型结果表明，血管紧张素转换酶抑制剂和血管紧张素受体阻滞剂引起两组之间血管紧张素I和II降低的百分比相似，但绝对值却存在显着差异减少。我们进一步提出，男性和女性RAS之间的主要区别可能是反馈机制的强度，受体结合的血管紧张素II通过该机制影响肾素的产生。