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Hypertension and genes: perspectives from this journal

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 21, pages 851–853 (2007)Cite this article

Hypertension is a complex multifactorial disorder with many genetic, environmental and demographic factors contributing to this disorder.1 As recently reviewed by Tanira and Balushi,1 the genetic element contribution to blood pressure variation ranges from 30 to 50%. There is therefore a viewpoint that identifying hypertension susceptibility genes would contribute to understanding the pathophysiology of the disorder, as well as targeted preventative strategies. The quest to find ‘a gene…’(or genes) for hypertension has long been the Holy Grail, as reflected by the many publications in the Journal of Human Hypertension, on this topic (see Supplementary Table 1).

Given that hypertension is a growing global health-care issue many efforts have been directed towards understanding the aetiology and pathogenesis of this condition.2 Several research strategies have been explored to dissect the genetic determinants of hypertension and it is more likely that a number of genes rather than a single gene would account for the heritability of this genetically complex disease.1

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sandwell Medical Research Unit, Sandwell Hospital, West Bromwich, UK

    J Chackathayil & J V Patel

  2. Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Department of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    B Cheung

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  1. J Chackathayil
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  2. J V Patel
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  3. B Cheung
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Correspondence to J V Patel.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Human Hypertension website (http://www.nature.com/jhh)

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Chackathayil, J., Patel, J. & Cheung, B. Hypertension and genes: perspectives from this journal. J Hum Hypertens 21, 851–853 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1002271

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