Association Study between the Genetic Variants of the Human Atrial Natriuretic Peptide Gene and Essential Hypertension in Korean Population

Hypertension leads to major health problems in many industrialized countries, and multiple etiologic factors are involved in the pathogenesis of this disorder. The genetic components of the natriuretic peptide system might be involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension. In this regard, the atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) gene has been proposed as a candidate hypertension gene. Therefore, we investigated the G1837A and C-664G polymorphisms of the ANP gene in 143 Korean normotensives and 118 hypertensives. There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies between the two groups. Although the frequencies in each of these polymorphisms were not significantly different between normotensives and hypertensives, our results provide additional ethnic information for linkage analysis and associated studies of this disorder with cardiovascular disease.