Lipoprotein lipase gene is in linkage with blood pressure phenotypes in Chinese pedigrees.

To elucidate the mechanism of lipid metabolism in the genesis of essential hypertension (EH), we linked blood pressure (BP) phenotypes with the lipoprotein lipase (LPL) gene. Variance component and sib-pair linkage models were used to test the relationship of the polymorphisms in the LPL gene region and EH in 148 Chinese hypertensive families. Linkage evidence with systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) was observed in a total population of 148 pedigrees with seven flanking microsatellite markers of the LPL gene, with a maximum two-point LOD score of 2.68 and a maximum multipoint LOD score (MLS) of 2.37 for SBP and a maximum MLS of 1.54 for DBP. Suggestive linkage results around this region were also obtained in northern and southern subsets by geographic distribution. In addition, quantitative-transmission/disequilibrium-test analyses showed that there was linkage between DBP and two single nucleotide polymorphisms in the LPL gene. This is the first report of linkage between LPL gene and DBP in the Chinese population. The LPL gene itself might explain our results or the LPL gene region might harbor some genes to explain the observed results to some degree and might contribute to the variation of BP in the Chinese population.