Lack of evidence for an association between alpha-adducin and blood pressure regulation in Asian populations

Recent studies have found the tryptophan allele of a glycine to tryptophan polymorphism at position 460 (G460W) of the alpha-adducin protein to be ass ociated with essential hypertension in European populations. We examined wh ether the tryptophan allele is associated with hypertension in a different population, comprised of subjects of Chinese origin from Taiwan, and Chines e and Japanese origin from the San Francisco Bay area and Hawaii. We adapte d the 5' allelic discrimination assay or TaqMan to type individuals for the G460W polymorphism, and using this method we typed more than 1000 individu als. The frequency of the W allele was slightly increased in the treated su bjects in the Chinese population (0.458 v 0.323) but not the Japanese popul ation (0.549 v 0.558). We considered dominant, recessive, and additive mode ls in our analysis. There was a significant result for a recessive model fo r systolic blood pressure in the Chinese population (chi(2) 6.84, df = 2, P < .05), but only suggestive evidence for diastolic blood pressure (chi(2) 3.30). In contrast, in the Japanese population, there was no evidence for a positive association under any model. For the combined Chinese and Japanes e samples, the evidence for association with alpha-adducin was not signific ant. Am J Hypertens 2000;13:704-709 (C) 2000 American Journal of Hypertensi on, Ltd.