Association study of G protein-coupled receptor kinase 4 gene variants with essential hypertension in northern Han Chinese.

To investigate the association between polymorphisms in the G protein-coupled receptor kinase 4 gene (GRK4) (R65L, A142V and A486V) and essential hypertension in northern Han Chinese, we conducted a case-control study consisting of 503 individuals with essential hypertension (HT) and 490 age-, gender-, and area-matched normotensive (NT) controls. The three GRK4 variants were genotyped by PCR-RFLP analysis. Both haplotype and single locus analysis were used to process the genotyping data. The A486 allele showed a significant association with HT (P < 0.001). A total of 6 haplotypes were observed in the entire population, with the haplotypes L-V-A and R-A-A being found to be significantly related to hypertension (P= 0.001).