Recent advances in the identification of genes for human hypertension

It is a well-established fact that genes are involved in the etiology of hypertension. However, identification of the gene variants still remains a challenge. Over the years, different approaches and technologies, including genome-wide scans, case-control association studies, experiments on inbred rodent models and expression profiling, have been utilized to elucidate hypertension susceptibility genes, but so far the results have been equivocal. During the last year, further chromosomal regions harboring blood pressure loci have been identified, and transcriptomics has been applied to aid the identification of disease genes. There are great expectations for the future with regards to further advancements in transcriptomics and proteomics. This review reports primarily on work that has been carried out in the last 12 months in the field, and considers its contribution towards a better understanding of the genetic mechanisms involved in blood pressure regulation and hypertension.