Role of apolipoprotein AI gene polymorphism (G-75A and C+83T) in essential hypertension in Indian population.

Hypertension is becoming a public health emergency worldwide. It has been seen that both genetics and gene-environment interactions are major determinants of lipoprotein abnormalities and hypertension. This study elucidates the effect of apolipoprotein AI gene polymorphism (G-75A and C+83T) in 50 cases of essential hypertension and equal number of age & sex matched control subjects in the Indian population. Higher instances of obesity and more adverse biochemical profiles were found in hypertensives [GA (74%) and CT (56%) most commonly observed genotypes]. Presence of A and T alleles and GA (-75 bp) and CT (+83 bp) heterozygosity in apolipoprotein AI gene play an important role in essential hypertension (GA genotype had an odds ratio of 4.27 (1.69-10.96) of developing essential hypertension). The odds ratio for the GA genotype was 3.74 (95%CI, 0.83-9.0) in the presence of confounding factors including total proteins, albumin, amylase, cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, VLDL and body mass index. It indicates one of the potential areas where population studies may be taken up for identifying the genetic basis of essential hypertension.