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©2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. May 26, 2014; 6(5): 327-337
Published online May 26, 2014. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v6.i5.327
Published online May 26, 2014. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v6.i5.327
Elevated blood pressure: Our family’s fault? The genetics of essential hypertension
Aniket Natekar, Randi L Olds, Meghann W Lau, Kathleen Min, Karra Imoto, Thomas P Slavin, The John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96813, United States
Thomas P Slavin, Hawaii Community Genetics, Honolulu, HI 96814, United States
Author contributions: Natekar A and Slavin TP contributed equally to this work; Natekar A and Slavin TP designed the format and methods; Olds RL and Lau MW performed the research on GWAS; Min K performed the research on epigenetics; Natekar A and Imoto K performed the research on RNA effects; Natekar A and Slavin TP wrote the paper.
Correspondence to: Thomas P Slavin, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, The John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, 1441 Kapiolani Blvd, Suite 1800, Honolulu, HI 96813, United States. thomas.slavin@kapiolani.org
Telephone: +1-808-9733403 Fax: +1-808-9733401
Received: December 27, 2013
Revised: February 10, 2014
Accepted: April 16, 2014
Published online: May 26, 2014
Processing time: 175 Days and 3.7 Hours
Revised: February 10, 2014
Accepted: April 16, 2014
Published online: May 26, 2014
Processing time: 175 Days and 3.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Essential hypertension (EH) is considered a multifactorial disease, indicating that many genetic, epigenetic, and environmental influences affect the initiation and continuance of the disease. Our goal is to provide an updated report on current genetic aspects possibly affecting EH by elucidating genetic factors’ role in EH. We found 130 genes meeting our inclusion/exclusion criteria. To our knowledge, this is the first review to discuss both genetic and epigenetic factors associated with EH in one article. With emerging technologies, more direct causal relationships between genetic and epigenetic factors with EH will likely be disdiscovered, creating tremendous potential for personalized medicine using pharmacogenomics.