Hypertension Genetic Predisposition And The Molecular Basis Of Clinical And Experimental Research

Background: To carry out genetic linkage studies of essential hypertension, it is necessary to define a population in which there is considerable genetic homogeneity. The Chinese people in Xing Tai city offer such a population. The present study provided an initial epidemiologic and genetic characterization of hypertensive compared to normotensive individuals in Chinese pedigrees. However, the progress in the knowledge of physiological mechanisms of essential hypertension has extensively been made with the advent of modern molecular technique. It may soon become possible to understand the genetic contributions to the disease. Angiotensinogen, the rate limiting factor in the activation of renin-angiotensin system is a prime suspect for harboring genetic determination of essential hypertension.Therefore our study was also performed to determine if the angiotensinogen gene was involved in essential hypertension and its cardiac hypertrophy.1. Genetic epidemiology: 48 matched-pairs of hypertensive and normotensive individuals were identified. They, their spouses (with whom they had lived for at least 10 years) and first degree relatives were studied according to a matched-pair design. Blood pressure, metabolic function were studied in each pedigree by investigators who were blind to the group designation of the individuals. Results: ① Compared to the relatives of the nornotensives, the parents and sibs of the hypentensive individuals have significantly higher arterial pressure. Neither wives nor children of the hypertensives compared to the normotensives showed similar difference.Further, the hypertensives (compared to normotensives) had a significantly higher probability of having a hypertensive progenitor. ② There was a significant correlation among systolic blood pressure of all first degree relatives in pedigrees. Diastolic blood pressure of probands was significantly correlated with that of all relatives except for mothers. There was no correlation between arterial pressure of probands with that of spouses. Heritability (H~2, Falconer formula) was 67±5% . ③ The relatives of hypertensive individuals displayed significant morbidity (21% vs 6% ; P<0.05) , but compared to normotensive individuals, spouses of the hypertensives demonstrated no difference in morbidity. ④ LDL level war elevated in all first degree...