Association Between ACE Gene Insertion (I)/Deletion (D) Polymorphism and Primary Hypertension in Turkish Patients of Trakya Region

Hypertension is immensely common in Turkish subjects in Trakya region. The renin angiotensin system (RAS) helps maintain blood pressure and salt homeostasis and appears important in the pathogenesis of hypertension. Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) is a key component of RAS. Insertion/Deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the ACE gene has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. In addition to this, the association between ACE I/D polymorphism and hypertension is controversial, when numerous studies have addressed the role of ACE I/D polymorphism in the development of hypertension, there were different studies showed that no correlation has been found between ACE I/D polymorphism and in the development of hypertension. The objective of our study was to investigate the relation between the ACE gene I/D polymorphism and primary hypertension in Turkish subjects in Trakya region. We analyzed the ACE gene I/D polymorphism in 79 patients with primary hypertension as a primary hypertensive group and 38 age matched healthy individuals as a control group by using a polymerase chain reaction assay, and agarose gel electrophoresis system. The genotype distributions were not different between the patients and normal control groups in the men. But the frequency of ACE Deletion/Deletion (DD) genotype in patients with primary hypertension (35.5%) was significantly higher than in controls (21.4%) in the women. This result suggested that ACE DD genotype may be associated with primary hypertension in the women, not in the men, and showed the possibility of ACE DD genotype as a potent risk factor for primary hypertension for the women not for the men.