A meta-analysis of genome-wide linkage scans for hypertension: the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Family Blood Pressure Program.
BACKGROUND
Four multicenter Networks (GenNet, GENOA, HyperGEN, SAPPHIRe) form the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Family Blood Pressure Program (FBPP), to search for hypertension/blood pressure (BP) genes. The networks used different family designs and targeted multiple ethnic groups, using standardized protocols and definitions. Linkage genome scans were done on samples within each network (N = 6245 relatives).


METHODS
The evidence was synthesized using meta-analysis.


RESULTS
Combining ethnic groups, no region reached LOD >2, but several small peaks were identified, including chromosome 2p where two other recent reports find hypertension linkage.


CONCLUSIONS
No regions show uniformly large effects on BP/hypertension in all populations.
Province
Michael A
MA
Division of Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA. mike@wubios.wustle.edu
Kardia
Sharon L R
SL
Ranade
Koustubh
K
Rao
Dabeeru C
DC
Thiel
Bonnie A
BA
Cooper
Richard S
RS
Risch
Neil
N
Turner
Stephen T
ST
Cox
David R
DR
Hunt
Steven C
SC
Weder
Alan B
AB
Boerwinkle
Eric
E
D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002889:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2 / Q000235:genetics; D019992:Databases as Topic; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D015894:Genome, Human; D006078:Government Programs; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics*; D008126:Lod Score; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D014481:United States