Although various environmental factors, such as a high-salt diet, a smoking habit, excessive alcohol intake, and physical inactivity, influence the development of hypertension, genetic variation also contributes to an individual's susceptibility to this condition. The purpose of the present study was to identify gene polymorphisms that confer susceptibility or resistance to hypertension, and thereby contribute to the prediction of the genetic risk for this condition. The study population comprised 2752 unrelated Japanese individuals (1370 men, 1382 women), including 1276 subjects with hypertension (774 men, 502 women) and 1476 controls (596 men, 880 women). The genotypes for 50 polymorphisms of 35 candidate genes were determined by a method that combines polymerase chain reaction and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes with suspension array technology. Evaluation of genotype distributions by the Chi-square test and subsequent multivariable logistic regression analysis with adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, and the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolemia revealed that the -14C↷T polymorphism of ABCA1, the C↷G (Ser2229Cys) polymorphism of ROS1, the C↷T (Asn591Asn) polymorphism of LDLR, the 13989A↷G (Ile118Val) polymorphism of CYP3A4, the C↷G and A↷C polymorphisms of ADIPOR1, and the -519A↷G polymorphism of MMP1 were significantly (P<0.05) associated with the prevalence of hypertension. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure differed significantly among genotypes for the -14C↷T polymorphism of ABCA1 and the C↷G (Ser2229Cys) polymorphism of ROS1, with the variant T and G alleles, respectively, being related to increased blood pressure. These results suggest that polymorphisms of ABCA1 and ROS1 are determinants of blood pressure and the development of hypertension in Japanese individuals. Determination of genotypes for ABCA1 and ROS1 may thus prove informative for the prediction of the genetic risk for hypertension.

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