Suggestive linkage detected for blood pressure related traits on 2q and 22q in the population on the Samoan islands.
BACKGROUND
High blood pressure or hypertension is a major risk factor involved in the development of cardiovascular diseases. We conducted genome-wide variance component linkage analyses to search for loci influencing five blood pressure related traits including the quantitative traits systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and pulse pressure (PP), the dichotomous trait hypertension (HT) and the bivariate quantitative trait SBP-DBP in families residing in American Samoa and Samoa, as well as in the combined sample from the two polities. We adjusted the traits for a number of environmental covariates such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and material life style.


RESULTS
We found suggestive univariate linkage for SBP on chromosome 2q35-q37 (LOD 2.4) and for PP on chromosome 22q13 (LOD 2.2), two chromosomal regions that recently have been associated with SBP and PP, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
We have detected additional evidence for a recently reported locus associated with SBP on chromosome 2q and a susceptibility locus for PP on chromosome 22q. However, differences observed between the results from our three partly overlapping genetically homogenous study samples from the Samoan islands suggest that additional studies should be performed in order to verify these results.
Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, 130 Desoto St, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. kaaberg@vcu.edu
Karolina
K
Aberg
Feng
F
Dai
Satupaitea
S
Viali
John
J
Tuitele
Guangyun
G
Sun
Subba R
SR
Indugula
Ranjan
R
Deka
Daniel E
DE
Weeks
Stephen T
ST
McGarvey
D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000235:genetics*; D002889:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2; D002892:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 22; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D018947:Samoa