[Association analysis of the essential hypertension susceptibility genes in adolescents: Kangwha study]

In this study we examined the association between the genetic markers ACE (A-240T, C-93T, I/D, A2350G), AGT (M235T), AT1R (A1166C), CYP11B2 (T-344C, V386A), REN (G2646A), ADRB2 (G46A, C79G, T-47C, T164I), GNB3 (C825T) and ADD1 (G460W) and the presence of essential hypertension in adolescents.

The Kangwha Study is an 18-year prospective study that is aimed at elucidating the determinants of the blood pressure level from childhood to early adulthood. For this study, we constructed a case-control dataset of size of 277 and 40 family trios data from the Kangwha Study. For this purpose, we perform a single locus-based case-control association study and a single locus-based TDT (transmission/disequilibrium test) study.

In the case-control study, the single locus-based association study indicated that the ADD1 (G460W) (p = 0.0403), AGT (M235T) (p = 0.0002), and REN (G2646A) (p = 0.0101) markers were significantly associated with the risk of hypertension. These results were not confirmed on the TDT study. This study showed that genetic polymorphisms of the ADD1, AGT and REN genes might be related to the hypertension in Korean adolescents.

This study provided useful information on genetics markers related to blood pressure. Further study will be needed to confirm the effect of the alpha adducin gene, the angiotensinogen gene and the renin gene on essential hypertension.