Association of essential hypertension in elderly Japanese with I/D polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that an insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the gene encoding angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) is associated with myocardial infarction and related cardiovascular diseases. We investigated a possible association of the ACE polymorphism with essential hypertension in a total of 263 cases/controls from among the elderly (age, over 70 years) and middle-aged (age between 30 and 60 years) Japanese population. The frequency of the I/I homozygote was significantly higher in hypertensive subjects than in controls in the elderly age group (33/57 vs 16/46; P ϭ 0.02), but no association was observed in the middle-aged group (25/75 vs 26/85; P ϭ 0.71). Similarly, having at least one insertion allele was associated with essential hypertension in the elderly age group (83/114 vs 46/92 in controls; P ϭ 0.001), but not in the middle-aged group (78/150 vs 94/170; P ϭ 0.524). These data suggest that genetic variation at the ACE locus may be associated with some determinants for blood pressure in elderly persons, and imply the involvement of the ACE insertion/deletion polymorphism in the etiology of agerelated essential hypertension in the Japanese population.

Polymorphism of the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Gene and Blood Pressure in a Japanese General Population (the Shigaraki Study).

“…Moreover, in our analysis of elderly hypertensives, we found no significant association between ACE I/D polymorphism and hypertension. However, other reports have shown that genetic variation at the ACE locus may be associated with some determinants for blood pressure in the elderly (5,11). These discrepant results may suggest that there is actually very little or no association between the ACE I/D genotypes and hy-…”

“…There were no differences or changes in blood pressure in relation to ACE I/D polymorphism in our study. However, recent reports have suggested that an ACE I/D polymorphism is associated with age-related essential hypertension (2,5,9,11). Moreover, some studies have recently suggested that there is a sex-specific association between this gene and hypertension.…”

“…The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Shiga University of Medical Science (No. [11][12][13][14][15]1999).…”

Risk factor–gene interaction in carotid atherosclerosis: effect of gene polymorphisms of renin-angiotensin system

“…The genetic predisposition to carotid atherosclerosis has been studied with respect to several candidate genes. Because the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays a pivotal role in the regulation of blood pressure, as well as in cardiovascular remodeling, the genes encoding the components of RAS have been the focus of much research (Hegele et al 1998;Nakauchi et al 1996;Takami et al 1998;Yoshida et al 2000). An insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the gene encoding angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) was shown to have a possible association with intima-media thickness (IMT) in several studies (Castellano et al 1995;Kogawa et al 1997;Pujia et al 1996).…”

Angiotensin-converting enzyme gene and retinal arteriolar narrowing: The Funagata Study

“…24 In contrast, the D allele of the ACE I/D polymorphism has been associated with atherosclerosis. 7 Retinal arteriolar narrowing, which reflects intimal thickening, medial hyperplasia and hyalinization and sclerosis of retinal arterioles has also been associated with atherosclerosis.…”