1. The typing of the apolipoprotein B 3' hypervariable region was investigated in hypertensive and normotensive subjects using rapid typing of a variable number of tandemly repeated short DNA sequences (VNTR) by the polymerase chain reaction. 2. In the DNA samples of 89 normotensive and 99 hypertensive patients, 13 different-sized alleles were detected. The most frequent allele has 35 repeat units in both groups with frequencies of 0.624 and 0.596 in normotensive and hypertensive patients, respectively. Frequency distribution of 13 alleles was similar in both groups. 3. These results demonstrate no association between the apolipoprotein B gene polymorphism and essential hypertension.