The ACE I/D polymorphism in relation to hypertension, cardiovascular and kidney diseases: The Strong Heart Study

Introduction A potential effect of this large ACE insertion/deletion (ACE I/D) on the physiology of the renin/angiotensin/aldosterone axis was understandably expected, but the evidence of an association with hypertension has been tenuous, although perhaps stronger among Asian populations. Surprisingly, the association of the ACE I/D genetic variant (rs1799752) with prototypic, secondary outcomes of hypertension, e.g., cardiovascular or kidney disease appears more convincing. Materials and methods The population based, longitudinal Strong Heart Study contained genotypes of this variant for 3077 American Indian participants from 3 geographic areas, along with a rich source of covariate and outcome data spanning 33 years. Microarray genetic data allowed adjustment for population structure, as well as relatedness between participants. Results No evidence was found of an association between rs1799752 and either hypertension as a primary risk factor, nor potential end-organ cardiovascular or kidney disease. Conclusions Although an association between the ACE I/D variant and hypertension is appears within some ethnic backgrounds, this was not evident among these American Indian communities. In addition, there was no association of the variant with cardiovascular or kidney disease.