Background: Genome-wide scans from Italy and China suggest a hypertension-susceptible locus between D2S2278 (nucleotides 11,245,080 - 11,245,358) and D2S168 (nucleotides 11,467,214 - 11,467,422) on chromosome 2.
Methods: We performed a large association study of polymorphisms in this region with blood pressure modulation in a Japanese general population. Forty-seven polymorphisms in 14 genes between nucleotide 8,845,292 and nucleotide 11,946,689, which contains D2S2278 and D2S168, were genotyped in 1880 individuals, 796 of whom were hypertensive and 1084 normotensive.
Results: Multivariate logistic regression analysis with adjustment for age, body mass index, presence of hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and current smoking and drinking revealed that one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), IMS-JST126186, in HPCAL1 (hippocalcin-like 1) in women and two SNPs, IMS-JST149391 and IMS-JST149390, in GREB1 (gene regulated by estrogen in breast cancer 1) in men were significantly associated with both prevalence of hypertension and blood pressure levels. To examine the role of GREB1 in more detail, we identified 38 additional genetic variations in GREB1 by direct sequencing, and eight polymorphisms were genotyped. One SNP, 45718A>G, was significantly associated with hypertension and blood pressure level in men, and this SNP was in linkage disequilibrium with a SNP present at the 3' splice site of intron 11.
Conclusion: Our study suggests that GREB1 and HPCAL1 are candidate hypertension-susceptibility genes in the Japanese general population and supports previous studies that also identified hypertension-related loci in this narrow region.