Extraction and measurement of circulating angiotensins I and II.

We describe a method for simultaneous extraction of angiotensins I and II from human blood. Blood was diluted with 10 volumes of isotonic saline containing ammonium ethylenediaminetetraacetate, and the angiotensin peptides were extracted by cation-exchange chromatography. The dilution effectively inhibits in vitro production of angiotensin I, conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II, and degradation of the peptides. Analytical recovery of exogenous angiotensin I or II added to whole blood in physiological concentrations was essentially complete. The extraction procedure removes blood and plasma components that interfere with radioimmunoassay of angiotensin, thus eliminating the need to correct for nonspecific interference. Circulating angiotensins I and II, measured in patients with essential hypertension before and after a week of diuretic administration, increased in parallel with plasma renin activity.