title: Tibetan patients with essential hypertension caused by underlying oxidative metabolism dysfunction and depressed nitric oxide synthesis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the role of oxidative metabolism and nitric oxide synthesis for elucidating their pathophysiological mechanisms in a Tibetan patient with essential hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  The serum levels of total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), nitric oxide (NO) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) were assayed in sixty native Tibetans (thirty hypertensive patients and thirty healthy volunteers as control).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The levels of T-SOD, T-AOC, NO and NOS were significantly lower in the patient group than in the control group (P < 0.01); MDA was significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group (P < 0.01). The level of MDA had a strong negative correlation with T-SOD, T-AOC, NO and NOS (r = -0.82, -0.76, -0.79, -0.73, respectively, P < 0.001 for all).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tibetan patients with essential hypertension (EH) may have underlying oxidative metabolism dysfunction and depressed NO synthesis, both responsible for the hypertensive process.
authors.affiliation: The Third Department of Internal Medicine, The 476th Hospital of PLA, Fuzhou 350002, China. lds476@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Dangsheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiongwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhongming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Wenli
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Da
authors.forename: Shunzhou
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Xiangui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000531:Altitude; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D009569:Nitric Oxide