NO ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ALPHA-ADDUCIN-460 POLYMORPHISM AND ESSENTIAL-HYPERTENSION IN A JAPANESE POPULATION

Many unknown genetic factors are involved in the pathogenesis of hyper tension. Recently, the reverse genetic approach revealed that some gen etic variants, such as angiotensinogen, lipoprotein lipase, and alpha- adducin gene polymorphisms, increase the risk for hypertension. Both i n rat and human, the genetic predisposition to hypertension was confir med only for angiotensinogen and alpha-adducin genes. Adducin is a mem brane cytoskeletal protein, which is thought to regulate sodium transp ort. Abnormalities of membrane sodium transport in the kidney play an important role in hypertension. A recent report by Cusi et al showed t hat the Trp allele of cy-adducin polymorphism (Gly 460 Trp) is associa ted with an increased risk of hypertension in whites, which led us to carry out a case-control study to examine whether the same association is observed in the Japanese population. We recruited 170 hypertensive and 194 normotensive Japanese subjects and compared the genotype dist ribution of alpha-adducin 460 polymorphism between cases and controls and between whites and Japanese. Trp allele frequency of controls in t he Japanese subjects was twice as high as in the whites. However, no a ssociation was observed between alpha-adducin polymorphism and hyperte nsion. Furthermore, alpha-adducin 460 polymorphism was not associated with any clinical characteristics. Accordingly, we concluded that a-ad ducin 460 polymorphism is not a major genetic risk for hypertension in Japanese people. (C) 1998 American Journal of Hypertension, Ltd.