Angiotensinogen M235T and Essential Hypertension in Korea

Hong, Sae Yong; Bang, Cha Ok; Kim, Chul Hyun; Kim, Hong Soo; Yang, Dong Ho; Choi, Jong Soon; Ha, Kwun Soo

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Potential involvement of the angiotensinogen gene(M235T) in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension has been suggested by some investigators. However, an association between M235T gene polymorphism and essential hypertension has been reported by some, but not by others. Since genetic diversity exists among different ethnic population, we addressed the question of whether there is an association between M235T gene polymorphism and essential hypertension in the Korean.
METHODS
100 patients with essential hypertension and 100 control subjects were recruited from outpatients at the Department of Internal Medicine, Soon-chunhyang Hospital, Chunan City. The criteria for hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure higher than 160mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure higher than 95mmHg. For detection of the M235T polymorphism at the angiotensinogen locus, the primer sequences were: sense primer : 5'-TGAAGGAG- AAGGTGTCTGCGGGA-3' and antisense primer : 5'- AGGACGGTGCGGTGAGAGTG-3'. The PCR product mixture was exposed to restriction enzyme Tthlll I and then submitted to electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel. Differences between the molecular variants of the gene in hypertensives and normotensives were compared by using the chi square test. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were calculated using Woolf's method.
RESULTS
Compared with the control subjects, hypertensives had higher values of three established risk factors for hypertension : age, BMI cholesterol (total and LDL). X analysis showed no difference in the distribution of genotype or allele frequency between the hypertensives and normotensives (chi square=1.14, p=0.29). The crude odds ratio was 0.73 for CC over CT (95% confidence interval 0.41-1.30). The adjusted odds ratio with age, sex, lipid profilcs and BMI was 0.68 for CC over CT (9596 confidence interval 037-1,23).
CONCLUSION
The molecular varient M235T of the angiotensinogen gene is not associated with essential hypertension in Korean population.