ABSTRACT
Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) which alters sodium balance, blood volume and vascular tone represents an important candidate for investigating the genetic basis of essential hypertension (EH). Accordingly, we have studied Bg11 and Xho1 restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of the ANP gene in 147 hypertensive, 141 normotensive and 67 population-based control subjects from a homogenous population of West African origin from St Vincent and the Grenadines. We found no association of either Bg11 and Xho1 RFLPs with EH. This study suggests that the ANP locus may not exert a major gene effect on EH amongst the black people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.(AU)
Subject(s)
Adult , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Atrial Natriuretic Factor/genetics , Hypertension/genetics , Hypertension/ethnology , Polymorphism, GeneticABSTRACT
The renin-angiotensin system regulates blood pressure and sodium balance. The angiotensinogen gene which encodes the key substrate within the system has been linked to essential hypertension in white Europeans. It has been suggested that people of West African ancestry may have a different genetic basis for hypertension. In this study we have tested whether there is linkage of the angiotensinogen to essential hypertension in African Caribbeans from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. DNA from 63 affected sibling pairs with hypertension was tested for linkage by analyzing whether there was excess allele sharing among sibling genotyped using an angiotensingogen dinucleotide repeat sequence. There was significant support for linkage (T = 3.07, P = 0.001) and association of this locus to hypertension (Xý = 50.2, 12 degrees of freedom, P ó 0.001). A DNA polymorphism which alters methionine to threonine at position 235 (M235T) within the angiotensinogen peptide has been associated previously with hypertension. However, we found no association of this variant with hypertension in this study. These findings provide support for linkage and association of the angiotensinogen locus to hypertension in African Caribbeans and suggest some similarities in the genetic basis of essential hypertension in populations of different ethnicity (AU)
Subject(s)
Adult , Middle Aged , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Angiotensinogen/genetics , Hypertension/ethnology , Hypertension/genetics , /genetics , Africa/ethnology , Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology , Blood Glucose/analysis , Hypertension/epidemiology , Genetic Linkage , Nuclear Family , Oligonucleotides , Polymorphism, Genetic , Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid , West Indies/epidemiology , Body Mass Index , AllelesABSTRACT
Epidemiological studies have consistently reported a higher prevalence of essential hypertension in black people. Other data indicate that black people may have salt regulatory systems with low reserves which are unable to cope with moderate quantities of salt and respond to salt loading by increasing their blood pressures. Black people are therefore susceptible to the deleterious effects of salt. As some forms of EH may be related to defects in salt regulatory systems, we investigated association of the renin gene locus (the rate limiting enzyme in an important salt regulatory system) with EH in an ethnically homogenous group of black people of African origin (Summary)