ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate whether the variants A(-6)G and A(-20)C of angiotensinogen (AGT) gene are involved in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension in Kazakans.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>T his case control study recruited 125 subjects with hypertension and 74 normotensive subjects from Kazakans of Xinjiang. Genomic DNA from leukocytes was analyzed for genetic variants A(-6)G and A(-20)C in 5' upstream core promoter of AGT gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and automatic sequencing.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1)There were only A(-6)G and A(-20)C variants in the -164 to +73 region of Kazakans' AGT gene. (2) The distributions of genotypes AA, AG, GG at locus -6 of AGT gene showed significant difference between the hypertensive group (0.39, 0.45, 0.16) and the normotensive group (0.49, 0.49, 0.02; Chi2=8.56, P=0.014). There were evident differences in the frequencies of the -6A and the -6G allele of the two groups (0.62, 0.38 and 0.73, 0.27; Chi2=5.35, P=0.021). (3) No significant difference was observed in the distribution of genotypes AA, AC, CC at locus -20 of AGT gene between the hypertensive group (0.69, 0.26, 0.05) and the normotensive group (0.65, 0.32, 0.03; Chi2=2.42, P=0.30). There was no distinct difference in the frequencies of the -20A allele and the -20C allele of the two groups (0.82, 0.18 and 0.82, 0.18; Chi2=0, P=0.99). (4) No significant difference was found at the levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the groups corresponding to genotypes at the loci -6 and -20 of AGT gene.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The results suggest that the polymorphism of A(-6)G in 5' upstream core promoter of the AGT gene may be involved in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension in Kazakans, while the A(-20)C variant may not play an important role in the etiology of essential hypertension in Kazakans.</p>