ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To ascertain whether the human glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene polymorphism is associated with cerebral infarction (CI) and essential hypertension (EH) in Chinese.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>This is a case-control study of Chinese DNA samples abstracted from 163 subjects. The samples were analysed by a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to determine the intron 4 variant of human GR gene.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>By analysis of the samples from both sexes as a whole, no association was observed between the EH+CI group and control group, and between the CI group and control group. However, by analysis of the samples from the females, weak association was observed between the EH+CI group and control group, and between the CI group and control group; the frequency of allele G was 0.64 for the EH+CI group, 0.69 for CI group and 0.46 for control group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The G allele may be a predisposing gene marker, GR gene intron 4 polymorphism contributes to the development of CI in females.</p>