Association of Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor (AT1R) Gene Polymorphism with Angiotensin II Serum Levels in Patients with Essential Hypertension

Essential hypertension (EH) is a multifactorial, polygenic condition, and is one of the most important comorbidities that contributes to stroke, myocardial infarction, cardiac failure, and renal failure. The continuous increasing rate of morbidity and mortality associated with EH presents an unmet need of population-based studies to explore pathophysiology as well as newer strategies for better diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. This study aimed to determine genotype and allele frequencies of A1166C polymorphism of AT1R gene in Indian patients with EH and correlated with serum levels of Angiotensin II. A total of 200 patients with EH and 200 age- and gender-matched control individuals were included in this study from the General Medicine Department Outpatient at Narayana Medical College and Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India. Patients with systolic blood pressure (SBP) >= 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) >= 90 mmHg were considered as hypertensive. The findings of this study revealed significantly increased risk of C/A heterozygote and allele C in both men and women. Moreover, both men and women patients with EH showed higher serum levels of Angiotensin II with C/A as well as AA genotypes. These findings indicate a significant association of 1166 C/A polymorphism of the AT1R gene with increased risk of hypertension in Indian population.