CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have identified a key mechanism that helps the body regulate blood pressure, offering new insight that could eventually guide treatments for hypertension and kidney disease.

The team discovered how kidney cells switch off renin, a hormone that can drive blood pressure dangerously high. While scientists have long understood that another hormone, angiotensin II, plays a role in suppressing renin, the exact process behind that action had remained unclear.

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