title: Association study of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene polymorphisms with essential hypertension in northern Han Chinese.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nitric oxide (NO) synthesized by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) plays an important role in both the regulation of endothelial function and the control of blood pressure. Up to now, there has been conflicting data regarding the association between three clinically relevant polymorphisms (T-786C, intron4b/a and G894T) of the eNOS gene and essential hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  To examine the contribution of the three eNOS gene polymorphisms to the development of hypertension in the northern Han Chinese, a case-control study including 503 hypertensive cases and 490 age-, gender-, and area-matched controls recruited from the International Collaborative Study of Cardiovascular Disease in Asia (InterASIA) was conducted. Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The T-786C and intron4b/a polymorphisms were observed in significant linkage disequilibrium (D' = 0.87, P < 0.001). The minor allele frequencies of these three polymorphisms in healthy controls were much lower than those of Caucasians (9.3% vs 39.6% - 42.0%, 8.9% vs 15.0% - 16.0% and 10.9% vs 34.5% - 34.9% for -786C, intron4a and 894T, respectively). Genotype distributions and allele frequencies of the three polymorphisms did not differ between cases and controls (all P > 0.05). In addition, none of the eight estimated haplotypes significantly increased or decreased the risk of hypertension before or after adjustment for several known risk factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study results suggest that the three eNOS gene polymorphisms are unlikely to be major genetic susceptibility factors for essential hypertension in the northern Han Chinese population.
authors.affiliation: Division of Population Genetics and Prevention, Cardiovascular Institute and Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Shao-yong
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Shu-feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dong-feng
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D052250:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic
chemical_list: D052250:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III