As a key enzyme of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, the renin
gene (REN) is a good candidate quantitative trait locus that may be i
mplicated in the molecular etiology of essential hypertension. Among m
ixed reports on the subject, a REN MboI restriction fragment length po
lymorphism has been shown to be significantly associated with a family
history of hypertension in a Japanese population. We show here that t
he REN MboI dimorphic site is located in the ninth intron of the gene,
and we describe a polymerase chain reaction-based assay for detection
of this site. We investigated MboI genotype distributions in 331 hype
rtensive and 279 normotensive subjects from the United Arab Emirates (
UAE), a genetically homogeneous ethnic population with no history of s
moking or alcohol consumption. A statistically significant association
was found between alleles on which the MboI site is present and clini
cal diagnosis of essential hypertension, indicating that 1) the presen
ce of the MboI site is a marker for susceptibility to hypertension in
the UAE (the associated odds ratio is 3.16); and 2) variations of the
REN (or of a nearby) gene that may be in linkage disequilibrium with t
his marker play a role in the development of essential hypertension in
the UAE.