¹Department of Hypertension and Cardiorenal Medicine

²Department of Health Care, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Mibu, Tochigi, Japan

Correspondence to: Dr T Ishimitsu, Department of Hypertension and Cardiorenal Medicine, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Mibu, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan. E-mail: isimitu@dokkyomed.ac.jp

Predispositions to essential hypertension and cardiovascular diseases are possibly associated with gene polymorphisms of the renin-angiotensin system. Gene polymorphisms of angiotensinogen and angiotensin-converting enzyme genes have been suggested to be risk factors for hypertension and myocardial infarction. Concerning the polymorphism of aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) gene, earlier studies have shown inconsistent results in terms of its relation to hypertension. In the present case-control study, we investigated the association of -344T/C polymorphism in the promoter region of human CYP11B2 gene with genetic predisposition to hypertension. The genotype of -344T/C polymorphism was determined in essential hypertension subjects (n=250) and normotensive subjects (n=221). The distributions of three genotypes (TT, TC, and CC) were significantly different between the hypertensive and the normotensive groups (²=9.61, P=0.008). Namely, the frequency of C allele was higher in the hypertensive patients than in the normotensive subjects (34.2 vs 26.5%, P=0.010). Our data suggest that the -344C allele of CYP11B2 gene polymorphism is associated with the genetic predisposition to develop essential hypertension.

Journal of Human Hypertension (2002) 16, 789-793. doi:10.1038/sj.jhh.1001484

essential hypertension; gene polymorphism; aldosterone