A HYPERTENSIVE FATHER, BUT NOT HYPERTENSIVE MOTHER, DETERMINES BLOOD-PRESSURE IN NORMOTENSIVE MALE OFFSPRING THROUGH BODY-MASS INDEX

This investigation was to assess the role of genetic loading of hypert ensive parents in the determination of blood pressure (BP) in their no rmotensive offspring, The medical check-up data from 7279 Japanese uni versity students aged 19.22 +/- 0.01 years were analysed of which 641 students had only one hypertensive parent with or without hypertensive grandparents, and from this number 609 cases were available for the p resent analysis. The BP in the students having only one hypertensive p arent were in the normotensive range, but was significantly higher tha n in those students without hypertensive relatives. Analyses of the da ta from the students having only one hypertensive parent revealed that systolic BP (SBP) and body mass index (BMI) were higher in the male t han in the female students. In addition, there were no differences in BP and BMI between the male students with a hypertensive father and th e male students having a normotensive father. However, multivariate an alyses revealed that BMI was an independent predictor of SEP solely in the male students having a hypertensive father, but not in the male s tudents having a normotensive father. Such a relationship between BMI and BP determination was not observed in the female students with one hypertensive parent. It is suggested that there are different mechanis ms for the determination of BP in normotensive offspring of hypertensi ve parents, and genetic loading of a hypertensive father plays a criti cal role in the determination of BP through BMI.