Geniposide in Gardenia jasminoides var. radicans Makino modulates blood pressure via inhibiting WNK pathway mediated by the estrogen receptors.

Objectives To investigate the effects of geniposide in an iridoid found inGardenia jasminoidesvar.radicans Makino(GJRM) in spontaneous hypertensive rat (SHR) and explore the possible mechanisms. Methods In this study, we detected the content of geniposide in GJRM by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Then, we used acute diuretic experiments to determine whether geniposide has diuretic effect. Moreover, we carried out experiments on SHR to further study the mechanism of hypertension, while real-time PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry were used for the experiments in vivo test. Hypotonic model was used for in vitro test. Key findings Our data showed that the content of geniposide in the extract of GJRM is 27.54%. Meanwhile, 50 mg/kg geniposide showed the strongest effect on promoting urine volume. Further study indicated that the extract of GJRM and geniposide could significantly reduce blood pressure and promote the excretion of urine and Na(+)in SHR. In addition, geniposide significantly inhibited the activation of the with-no-lysine kinase (WNK) signalling pathway and significantly increases the protein expressions of estrogen receptor alpha (ER alpha), estrogen receptor beta (ER beta) and G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) in SHR. In hypotonic model, geniposide significantly inhibits the phosphorylation of NKCC and NCC and could be antagonistic to estrogen receptor antagonists. Conclusions Collectively, we would suggest that geniposide may potentially be utilized as an adjunct to existing thiazide and thiazide-like diuretics to control hypertension, mainly through inhibiting the activation of the WNK signalling pathway mediated by the estrogen receptor.