Key result
Familial genetic and environmental risk factors significantly increased hypertension risk, with heritability estimates of 30% for diastolic and 25% for systolic blood pressure over 15 years.
Why the study?
High blood pressure is a heritable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, but whether familial genetic and environmental risk factors associate with an increased risk of high blood pressure remained to be investigated.
Are familial genetic and environmental risk factors associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure?
Cohort (n=4,559)
Are familial genetic and environmental risk factors associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure?
Familial genetic and environmental risk profiles significantly increase the risk of high blood pressure beyond an individual's own risk factors.
Familial BP aggregation observed; leaves open whether genetics or shared environment drive risk, needing prospective confirmation.
Background and aims High blood pressure is the heritable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. We investigated whether the presence of familial genetic and environmental risk factors are associated with increased risk of high blood pressure.Methods A total of 4,559 individuals from 401 families were included in this study. Familial aggregation analysis was carried out on systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), and heritability was estimated for SBP and DBP. The association between familial risk factors and blood pressure traits including, incidence of hypertension, SBP and DBP was estimated separately using regression-based two-level Haseman-Elston (HE) method, with individual and familial BMI and WC as environmental exposures and familial genetic profile of known variants as genetic risk factors in 210 index families (≥2 hypertensive cases). Models were adjusted for the two nested sets of covariates.Results During a follow-up of 15 years, the SBP, DBP, BMI and WC were highly correlated in inter class of mother-offspring and intraclass of sister-sister with heritability of 30 and 25% for DBP and SBP, respectively. Among index families, those whose members with higher familial BMI or WC had significantly increased risk of hypertension and consistent, strong signals of rs2493134 (AGT) linked with SBP and DBP, rs976683 (NLGN1) linked with SBP and HTN, and epistasis of rs2021783 (TNXB) and known genetic variants linked with all blood pressure traits.Conclusions Findings from this study show that familial genetic and environmental risk profile increase risk for high blood pressure beyond the effect of the individuals’ own risk factors.
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Kolifarhood et al. (2021) conducted a cohort in High blood pressure (n=4,559). Familial genetic and environmental risk factors (familial BMI, waist circumference, and genetic variants) was evaluated on Incidence of hypertension, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. Familial genetic and environmental risk factors significantly increased hypertension risk, with heritability estimates of 30% for diastolic and 25% for systolic blood pressure over 15 years.
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