**4. Pathological role of vascular mineralocorticoid receptor in blood vessels**

It has been confirmed that MR presents extrarenal actions [42, 44, 45] as Na<sup>+</sup> handling alone cannot fully explain the development of hypertension and associated cardiovascular mortality; but these actions are still poorly understood. In fact, there are multiple clinical studies in which mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRA) reduce the incidence of heart attacks and cardiovascular mortality [46, 47].
