ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2009
Potassium softens vascular endothelium and increases nitric oxide release.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 195 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of Potassium Supplementation on Endothelial Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Intervention Studies.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Sodium reduction is the key ingredient in dietary treatment of hypertension - a randomized controlled trial on sodium, potassium and nitrate.Journal of human hypertension · 2026Trial
- Postprandial Vascular Effects of a High Potassium Meal in Patients with Treated Hypertension.Nutrients · 2024Trial
- Elemental analysis in menstrual effluent of women with PCOS: association with oxidative stress mechanisms: a case-control study.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2026Article
- The Ketogenic Diet in the Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension (HTN).Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Increased diameter of arteries and veins in the caudal fins ofmicroPublication biology · 2026Article
- Serum potassium and high-altitude coronary microvascular disease: a propensity score matched analysis revealing a linear dose-response relationship.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Global diet quality score and risk of hypertension in Iranian adults: Tehran lipid and glucose study.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Mechanical Properties of Endothelial Cells: A Key to Physiology, Drug Testing and Nanostructure Interaction.Cells · 2025Review
- Sodium salt substitution for blood pressure in adults with diabetes.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Targeting cancer cell stiffness and metastasis with clinical therapeutics.Clinical & experimental metastasis · 2025Review
- Immunomodulatory Effects of Selected Non-Nutritive Bioactive Compounds and Their Role in Optimal Nutrition.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Early reduction of skin potassium without sodium accumulation in the pathogenesis of salt sensitivity in primary aldosteronism.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- High Potassium Diet Rich in Spices and Herbs-Salt Substitution (HPSH-SS) for Blood Pressure Reduction in Older Adults: Protocol for Diet Concept and Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Modifying Dietary Sodium and Potassium Intake: An End to the 'Salt Wars'?Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) · 2024Review
- Article
- Genetic insights into the effect of trace elements on cardiovascular diseases: multi-omics Mendelian randomization combined with linkage disequilibrium score regression analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Platelet Cyclic GMP Levels Are Reduced in Patients with Primary Aldosteronism.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- T helper cell polarity determines salt sensitivity and hypertension development.Hypertension research : official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension · 2023Article
- Association of Dietary Potassium Intake With Abdominal Aortic Calcification and Pulse Pressure in US Adults.Journal of renal nutrition : the official journal of the Council on Renal Nutrition of the National Kidney Foundation · 2023Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In the presence of aldosterone, plasma sodium in the high physiological range stiffens endothelial cells and reduces the release of nitric oxide. We now demonstrate effects of extracellular potassium on stiffness of individual cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells by using the tip of an atomic force microscope as a mechanical nanosensor. An acute increase of potassium in the physiological range swells and softens the endothelial cell and increases the release of nitric oxide. A high physiological sodium concentration, in the presence of aldosterone, prevents these changes. We propose that the potassium effects are caused by submembranous cortical fluidization because cortical actin depolymerization induced by cytochalasin D mimics the effect of high potassium. In contrast, a low dose of trypsin, known to activate sodium influx through epithelial sodium channels, stiffens the submembranous cell cortex. Obviously, the cortical actin cytoskeleton switches from gelation to solation depending on the ambient sodium and potassium concentrations, whereas the center of the cell is not involved. Such a mechanism would control endothelial deformability and nitric oxide release, and thus influence systemic blood pressure.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.