Alu-repeat polymorphism in the gene coding for tissue-type plasminogen activator and the risk of hypertension in a Chinese Han population.

Accumulating data support an association between hypertension and impaired fibrinolytic potential abnormalities in endogenous fibrinolysis. The present study examined whether there was an association between essential hypertension and either a polymorphism in the gene coding for t-PA or the plasma concentration of t-PA antigen. Chinese hypertensive subjects (n = 126) and normotensive controls (n = 102; sex- and age-matched with hypertensives) were recruited from among the outpatients of FuWai Hospital. The distributions of the II, ID, and DD genotypes of the t-PA gene in hypertensive patients (0.15, 0.49, 0.36) were similar to those in control subjects (0.11, 0.51, 0.38; p = 0.626). No significant difference in overall allele frequencies was found between the hypertension and control groups (p = 0.656). The allelic frequencies were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was no evidence of an association between the level of t-PA antigen and risk of hypertension. Thus, in this case control study, neither the presence of the insertion allele of the Alu-repeat polymorphism of the t-PA nor the level of t-PA antigen were associated with the risk of essential hypertension.