title: Association of the alpha-adducin locus with essential hypertension.
abstract: Previous studies on genetic rat hypertension have shown that polymorphism within the alpha-adducin gene may regulate blood pressure. Adducin is a cytoskeletal protein that may be involved in cellular signal transduction and interacts with other membrane-skeleton proteins that affect ion transport across the cell membrane. There is a high homology between rat and human adducin and pathophysiological similarities between the Milan hypertensive rat strain and a subgroup of patients with essential hypertension. Thus, we designed a case-control study to test the possible association between the alpha-adducin locus and hypertension. One hundred ninety primary hypertensive patients were compared with 126 control subjects. All subjects were white and unrelated. Four multiallelic markers surrounding the alpha-adducin locus located in 4p16.3 were selected: D4S125 and D4S95 mapping at 680 and 20 kb centromeric, and D4S43 and D4S228/E24 mapping at 660 and 2500 kb telomeric. Alleles for each marker were pooled into groups. Comparisons between control subjects and hypertensive patients were carried out by testing the allele-disease association relative to the marker genotype. The maximal association occurred for D4S95 (chi 2(1) 13.33), which maps closest to alpha-adducin. These data suggest that a polymorphism within the alpha-adducin gene may affect blood pressure in humans.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Dialysis and Hypertension, University of Milan, S. Raffaele Hospital, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Casari
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barlassina
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cusi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zagato
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Muirhead
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Righetti
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nembri
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Amar
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gatti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Macciardi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000483:Alleles; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002148:Calmodulin-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D005810:Multigene Family; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D000099291:Adducins
chemical_list: D001798:Blood Proteins; D002148:Calmodulin-Binding Proteins; D000099291:Adducins