Genetic architecture of ambulatory blood pressure in the general population: insights from cardiovascular gene-centric array

Maciej Tomaszewski, Radoslaw Debiec, Peter S Braund, Christopher P Nelson, Robert Hardwick, Paraskevi Christofidou, Matthew Denniff, Veryan Codd, Suzanne Rafelt, Pim van der Harst, Dawn Waterworth, Kijoung Song, Peter Vollenweider, Gerard Waeber, Ewa Zukowska-Szczechowska, Paul R Burton, Vincent Mooser, Fadi J Charchar, John R Thompson, Martin D TobinNilesh J Samani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Genetic determinants of blood pressure are poorly defined. We undertook a large-scale, gene-centric analysis to identify loci and pathways associated with ambulatory systolic and diastolic blood pressure. We measured 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure in 2020 individuals from 520 white European nuclear families (the Genetic Regulation of Arterial Pressure of Humans in the Community Study) and genotyped their DNA using the Illumina HumanCVD BeadChip array, which contains ≈ 50 000 single nucleotide polymorphisms in >2000 cardiovascular candidate loci. We found a strong association between rs13306560 polymorphism in the promoter region of MTHFR and CLCN6 and mean 24-hour diastolic blood pressure; each minor allele copy of rs13306560 was associated with 2.6 mm Hg lower mean 24-hour diastolic blood pressure (P = 1.2 × 10⁻⁸). rs13306560 was also associated with clinic diastolic blood pressure in a combined analysis of 8129 subjects from the Genetic Regulation of Arterial Pressure of Humans in the Community Study, the CoLaus Study, and the Silesian Cardiovascular Study (P=5.4 × 10⁻⁶). Additional analysis of associations between variants in gene ontology-defined pathways and mean 24-hour blood pressure in the Genetic Regulation of Arterial Pressure of Humans in the Community Study showed that cell survival control signaling cascades could play a role in blood pressure regulation. There was also a significant overrepresentation of rare variants (minor allele frequency: < 0.05) among polymorphisms showing at least nominal association with mean 24-hour blood pressure indicating that a considerable proportion of its heritability may be explained by uncommon alleles. Through a large-scale gene-centric analysis of ambulatory blood pressure, we identified an association of a novel variant at the MTHFR/CLNC6 locus with diastolic blood pressure and provided new insights into the genetic architecture of blood pressure.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1069-76
Number of pages8
JournalHypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)
Volume56
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Blood Pressure/genetics
  • Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory
  • Chloride Channels/genetics
  • Cohort Studies
  • Female
  • Gene Frequency
  • Genetic Association Studies
  • Genetic Loci
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Hypertension/epidemiology
  • Male
  • Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2)/genetics
  • Middle Aged
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Prevalence
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • United Kingdom/epidemiology
  • Whites/genetics
  • Young Adult

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