Genetic polymorphisms of purinergic P2Y2 receptor were associated with the susceptibility to essential hypertension in Chinese postmenopausal women

Hypertension has become a prominent public health concern. Essential hypertension (EH) is a polygenic disorder caused by multiple susceptibility genes. It has been previously shown that the purinergic P2Y2 receptor (P2Y2R) regulates blood pressure; however, whether P2Y2R genetic polymorphisms correlate with EH has not been investigated in Chinese. Our study included 500 EH cases and 504 controls who are Chinese postmenopausal women. We used allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (ASPCR) to genotype five single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in P2Y2R gene, i.e. , rs4944831, rs12366239, rs1783596, rs4382936 and rs10898909. We assessed the association of P2Y2R genetic polymorphisms with EH susceptibility. The results demonstrated that P2Y2R rs4382936A was correlated with a high risk of EH; particularly, the participants with the rs4382936A allele and CA/AA/(CA + AA) genotypes were at higher risks to EH compared to the subjects with the rs4382936C allele and CC genotype. Moreover, four P2Y2R haplotypes combined by rs1783596-rs4382936-rs10898909, i.e. , CAA, CAG, TAA and TAG, were susceptible haplotypes for EH, whereas haplotype CCG was a protective haplotype for EH. These results may provide new evidence for applying P2Y2R genetic polymorphisms as useful markers in clinic screening or monitoring potential EH cases in a population of Chinese postmenopausal women.