Telomeres and essential hypertension.
The dynamics of telomere attrition in human beings might shape the course of age-dependent, complex genetic traits. One of these traits is essential hypertension. Age-dependent telomere attrition could lead to critically shortened telomeres and aneuploidy (ie, the loss or gain of chromosomes) with a resultant mosaicism that will be variably expressed in different cells and tissues. The chromosomal instability and loss of heterozygosity resulting from this process would promote an age-dependent expression of variant genes that harbor susceptibility for essential hypertension or genes that accelerate the process of aging.
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Hypertension Research Center, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Newark 07103-2714, USA. avivab@umdnj.edu
Aviv
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D000367:Age Factors; D000782:Aneuploidy; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics*; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*