Alterations in heart and kidney membrane phospholipids in hypertension as observed by ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance

Abnormalities of phospholipids in hypertension have previously been described in human erythrocyte, platelet, and plasma lipoproteins. Since the heart and kidney are adversely affected by hypertension, we investigated possible alterations in their membrane phospholipids, which could play a role in the derangement of intracellular ion balance widely observed in hypertension. The phospholipid compositions of heart and kidney from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats were determined by using ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Absolute contents of all phospholipids in hypertensive hearts and kidneys were significantly higher than in normotensive hearts and kidneys. Expressed as a fraction of total phospholipid, cardiolipin (CL) and phosphatidylethanolamine plasmalogen (PEp) were significantly increased in SHR hearts compared to WKY hearts (CL and PEp were 7.95 ± 0.22% and 13.16 ± 0.35% in SHR vs. 7.01 ± 0.20% and 11.19 ± 0.42% in WKY rats, P ≤ 0.05), but phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylcholine (PC) were significantly decreased in SHR (PE and PC were 22.46 ± 0.37% and 44.81 ± 0.43% in SHR vs. 24.02 ± 0.44% and 46.01 ± 0.50% in WKY rats, p ≤ 0.05). In the phospholipids extracted from rat kidneys, the percentage of PE was significantly higher for SHR than for WKY rats (20.37 ± 0.60% vs. 18.43 ± 0.37%, P ≤ 0.05), while PEp and phosphatidylserine (PS) were significantly lower for SHR (PEp and PS were 10.22 ± 0.36% and 8.42 ± 0.28% in SHRs vs. 11.29 ± 0.36% and 9.71 ± 0.40% in WKY rats, P ≤ 0.05). The above alterations in phospholipid composition might contribute to the higher oxygen consumption in the hypertensive heart and abnormal intracellular ion concentrations and ion transport in the heart and the kidney in hypertension.