Abstract To investigate the relationship between 27 bp repeat polymorphism in intron 4in the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS4) gene and essential hypertension in the KazakhChinese population, 151 patients with essential hypertension and 138 healthy people were selectedfrom the Boertonggu countryside of Shawan region in the Xinjiang uygur autonomous region of China in2006. The polymorphism of eNOS in the two groups was detected with polymerase chain reaction assaysand the genotype frequencies in each group were calculated following the Hardy-Weinberg law. Fourand five tandem 27 bp repeats were designated as ”a” and ”b”, respectively. It was found that thefrequencies of b/b, b/a and a/a genotypes of the eNOS4 gene were 84.06%, 15.22% and 0.72% in thecontrol group, and 81.46%, 15.89% and 2.65% in the hypertension group, respectively. The frequenciesof gene ”a” and ”b” were 91.67% and 8.33% in the control group and 89.40% and 10.60% in thehypertension group, respectively. It was found that plasma eNOS activity was not associated withgenotypes and alleles of eNOS gene. Plasma eNOS activity in the hypertension group was significantlydecreased compared with the control group (P<0.01). The results suggest that eNOS4 genepolymorphisms are unlikely to be the major genetic susceptibility factors for essential hypertensionin the Xinjiang Kazakh population. However, a positive association between plasma eNOS activity andessential hypertension has been revealed.
Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica
1672-9145, Volume 39, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 311-316