Background: The relationship between plasma uridine levels and blood pressure (BP), and indicators of muscular purine degradation and insulin resistance (IR) has been evaluated in hypertensive (HT) patients.
Methods and results: In 36 HT patients and 10 normotensive subjects, seated BP was measured, and blood samples were drawn after overnight fast. In 18 of the HT patients, the semi-ischemic forearm test was performed to examine the release of hypoxanthine, ammonium and lactate. Plasma uridine levels were significantly higher than in the normotensive subjects. Fasting plasma insulin levels and homeostasis model assessment of IR correlated with plasma uridine levels in the HT patients. Plasma uridine levels showed a significant correlation with hypoxanthine, ammonia and lactate released from the semi-ischemic exercising muscles of the HT patients.
Conclusions: Taken together with the positive correlation with indicators of IR, it is suggested that plasma uridine levels in HT are responsible for purine degradation and IR in skeletal muscles.