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.
Human angiotensinogen (AGT) gene promoter polymorphisms (G-217A; A-20C; G-6A) influence AGT transcription in vitro and have been implicated in the genetics of essential hypertension.
To avoid this difficulty in our study of essential hypertension in Anqing, China, we tested AGT variants using the transmission/disequilibrium test, a procedure that bypasses the need for a control sample by testing for excessive transmission of a genetic variant from parents heterozygous for that variant.
Functional polymorphisms that predispose to increased basal GRK4 activity both decrease dopamine receptor activity and increase angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor activity and are associated with essential hypertension in a number of different human cohorts.
The renin-angiotensin system plays an important role in the regulation of blood pressure and previous studies have suggested that angiotensinogen (AGT) gene locus is linked with human essential hypertension.
Our study indicated that three polymorphisms (A-6G, A-20C and G-217A) in the AGT gene are associated with essential hypertension in the Chinese population.
A total of 192 control subjects (aged 45.87 +/- 3.0 years) and 206 patients with the essential hypertension (aged 48.71 +/- 8.42 years) were compared at three angiotensinogen gene polymorphisms by considering BMI and smoking status.
The allele 235T (a threonine in place of a methionine at position 235) of angiotensinogen has been found to be associated with a predisposition to essential hypertension.
The angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT-1) mediates the major pressor and trophic actions of angiotensin II (Ang II) and at least 50 different polymorphisms have been described in the AT-1 gene (AT(1)R gene); in particular, the C allele of the +1166A/C polymorphism has been associated with the severe form of essential hypertension, but the role of this polymorphism is still ambiguous in pathologies related to high Ang II levels, such as deterioration of renal function, arterial stiffness and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Angiotensinogen exhibits genetic linkage to and association with essential hypertension and preeclampsia, a common hypertensive disorder of pregnancy; however, the polymorphisms detected thus far provide no functional clues.
A recent cross-sectional study of HTs in Salt Lake City and Paris has reported a significant association of a T704-->C (Met235-->Thr) variant in exon 2 of the angiotensinogen gene (AGT) with essential hypertension (HT).
We assessed the association between several polymorphisms of angiotensinogen gene (AGT) and essential hypertension using ambulatory blood pressure (BP).