The kidney and hypertension.

The kidney is important not only as a target organ of hypertension but also as a organ that may cause hypertension. For many years, we have studied basic and clinical aspects of the role of the kidney in hypertension, including the renin-angiotensin, kallikrein-kinin, and prostaglandin systems, glomerular hemodynamics, therapeutic modalities, and prognosis. This review summarizes some of our results together with those of other relevant studies in the literature.