Three large-scale association studies provide insights into the genetic architecture of blood pressure regulation, identifying new common variants of modest effect and providing insights into the impact of rare and low-frequency variants. The findings suggest that newly identified variants act through indirect disease pathways and suggest targeting of causal networks might improve outcomes in patients with hypertension.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Lifton, R. P. et al. Evidence for heritability of non-modulating essential hypertension. Hypertension 13, 884–889 (1989).
Cushman, W. C. et al. Regional and racial differences in response to antihypertensive medication use in a randomized controlled trial of men with hypertension in the United States. Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study Group on Antihypertensive Agents. Arch. Intern. Med. 160, 825–831 (2000).
Simino, J., Rao, D. C. & Freedman, B. I. Novel findings and future directions on the genetics of hypertension. Curr. Opin. Nephrol. Hypertens. 21, 500–507 (2012).
Ehret, G. B. et al. The genetics of blood pressure regulation and its target organs from association studies in 342,415 individuals. Nat. Genet. 48, 1171–1184 (2016).
Surendran, P. et al. Trans-ancestry meta-analyses identify rare and common variants associated with blood pressure and hypertension. Nat. Genet. 48, 1151–1161 (2016).
Liu, C. et al. Meta-analysis identifies common and rare variants influencing blood pressure and overlapping with metabolic trait loci. Nat. Genet. 48, 1162–1170 (2016).
Reich, D. et al. Reconstructing Indian population history. Nature 461, 489–494 (2009).
Appel, L. J. et al. A clinical trial of the effects of dietary patterns on blood pressure. DASH Collaborative Research Group. N. Engl. J. Med. 336, 1117–1124 (1997).
Willis, B. L., Gao, A., Leonard, D., Defina, L. F. & Berry, J. D. Midlife fitness and the development of chronic conditions in later life. Arch. Intern. Med. 172, 1333–1340 (2012).
Acknowledgements
B.I.F's research is supported by NIH grants R01 DK071891 and DK 070941.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
PowerPoint slides
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Palmer, N., Freedman, B. Genetic factors in the regulation of blood pressure. Nat Rev Nephrol 12, 716–717 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2016.150
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2016.150
