Hypertension in an Anthropological and Evolutionary Paradigm

Danziger, Robert S.

doi:10.1161/01.hyp.38.1.19

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…It has been suggested that by predisposing mothers to preeclampsia, the ancestral alleles could have negatively impacted fitness, but such a scenario would probably favor genetic drift rather than positive selection for derived alleles. 20,22,23 Drift may explain some of the observed variation in AGT polymorphism frequency (eg, the high prevalence of the derived allele in the Hema population of Africa), but because the frequencies of other AGT alleles are not increased, the evidence does not support a critical role for genetic drift in other regions of the AGT gene. 19 The most parsimonious interpretation of the genomic data is that either derived alleles were subjected to relatively strong and rapid selection or that the ancestral alleles were strongly selected against.…”

Section: Natural Selection and Sodium-conserving Genotypesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Evolution and Hypertension

Weder

2007

Hypertension

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Evolution by natural selection is the supreme organizing principle of biology, but it has not been widely applied in medicine. 1 Medicine has historically been concerned with mechanistic, or "proximate," answers to questions of how diseases develop and cause pathology. In contrast, evolutionary, or "ultimate," questions, frequently ask "why" structures or functions are as they are. 2 A full explanation of a disease should ideally address both, and what follows is a review of aspects of proximate and evolutionary thinking in hypertension. Pressure-Natriuresis: The Key Mechanism of HypertensionAs animals evolved, body size increased, and delivery of nutrients to cells came to exceed the range of diffusion. Simple systems capable of supporting cellular metabolism arose, and natural selection went on to shape our staggeringly complex, highly integrated cardiovascular system. Contemporary cardiovascular research is almost exclusively concerned with detailed descriptions of the proximate features of cardiovascular function and structure, and we now understand many aspects in exquisite detail. Blood pressure, however, cannot be reduced to the individual elements of the circulation. It is a function of all of them acting in concert; it is an emergent property of the entire system. All hierarchically organized biological systems have higher-order emergent functions that depend on, but are not predictable from, the structures and functions of lower levels, 3 and because emergent properties are lost when a system is disaggregated, integrative physiology is critical to understanding blood pressure regulation. The most comprehensive description of cardiovascular system physiology and blood pressure control is the systems analysis mathematical model developed by Guyton et al, 4 which proposes renal pressurenatriuresis as the dominant regulator of blood pressure.The relationship of chronic pressure-natriuresis to the regulation of blood pressure level has been the focus of a great deal of research, and we now understand some of the regulatory mechanisms (reviewed in Reference 5). Pressurenatriuresis is a classic negative feedback control system: when arterial blood pressure increases, renal output of sodium and water increases above intake and blood pressure falls. Guyton et al 4 proposed that this feedback mechanism has infinite gain, that is, it completely restores blood pressure to a "set point" at which sodium and water intake and output are balanced. Renal pressure-natriuresis is, therefore, the dominant mechanism controlling the set point about which blood pressure is regulated, and although there are many other short-term blood pressure regulators, the infinite gain of renal pressure-natriuresis feedback trumps all other subsystems over the long-term. Understanding how the normal set point of pressure-natriuresis rises to support hypertension requires consideration of additional questions of biological explanation. What Role Does Adaptation by NaturalSelection Play?Evolution by natural selection shapes phenotypes adapte...

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Section: Natural Selection and Sodium-conserving Genotypesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Evolution and Hypertension

Weder

2007

Hypertension

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“…However, the differences in LD are pronounced around the A(-6)G polymorphisms but not in the entire gene. 60,85 Other examples of correlation between latitude and "heat-adapted" alleles include variants in CYP3A5, 61 GNB3, 62 ADRB2, 62 and SCNN1A 62 (online-only Data Supplement Table II). Among these alleles, the variant 825T in GNB3 may account for a significant portion of worldwide variation in blood pressure.…”

Section: Ding and Kullomentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary Genetics of Coronary Heart Disease

Ding

Kullo

2009

Circulation

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“…cit .). From an evolutionary perspective, sustained changes in blood pressure outside the normal bounds in response to environment could lead to hypertension, which in turn could also affect both health and fitness of individuals (Danziger 2001). Thus arterial pressure may be considered as an important fitness trait.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between SNP Heterozygosity and Quantitative Traits in the Framingham Heart Study

Govindaraju

Larson

Yin

et al. 2009

Annals of Human Genetics

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Summary Associations between multilocus heterozygosity and fitness traits, also termed heterozygosity and fitness correlations (HFCs), have been reported in numerous organisms. These studies, in general, indicate a positive relationship between heterozygosity and fitness traits. We studied the association between genome-wide heterozygosity at 706 non-synonymous and synonymous SNPs and 19 quantitative traits, including morphological, biochemical and fitness traits in the Framingham Heart Study. Statistically significant association was found between heterozygosity and systolic and diastolic blood pressures as well as left ventricular diameter and wall thickness. These results suggest that heterozygosity may be associated with traits, such as blood pressure that closely track environmental variations. Balancing selection may be operating in the maintenance of heterozygosity and the major components of blood pressure and hypertension. Genome wide SNP heterozygosity may be used to understand the phenomenon of dominance as well as the evolutionary basis of many quantitative traits in humans.

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Hypertension in an Anthropological and Evolutionary Paradigm

Cited by 21 publications

References 39 publications

Evolution and Hypertension

Evolution and Hypertension

Evolutionary Genetics of Coronary Heart Disease

Association between SNP Heterozygosity and Quantitative Traits in the Framingham Heart Study

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