HMGB1 gene polymorphism is associated with hypertension in Han Chinese population.

AbstractBackground: High-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) acts as a proinflammatory cytokine by activating pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), including Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and the receptor of AGE (AGER) with oxidative injury. Animal study proved that HMGB1 contributed to the pathogenesis of experimental pulmonary hypertension (HT) via activation of TLR4. The aim of this study is to test whether HMGB1 harbor genetic susceptibility to HT in a Chinese population. Methods: A case–control study comprising 2012 HT cases and 2210 controls was used to evaluate the association of three tagging single nucleotide polymorphism (tagSNPs) in HMGB1 gene with HT and blood pressure. Logistic regression model was used to adjust confounding factor for HT and general linear model (GLM) was applied to compare blood pressure levels between genotypes in cases and controls. Results: Single locus analysis showed that there was no statistical association of three tagSNPs with HT after adjustment for the covariates. ...