Systematic analysis of the clinical and biochemical characteristics of maternally inherited hypertension in Chinese Han families associated with mitochondrial

BMC Medical Genomics

Yundai Chen³  Yang Li³  Minxin Guan¹  Qinghua Ma²  Zongbin Li³  Jinliao Gao³  Tong Yin³  Jie Yang³  Xueping Wang³  Chao Zhu³  Qinlei Zhu³  Yuqi Liu³ 

[1] Department of Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China;Department of Cardiology, Yishui Center Hospital of Shandong Province, Yishui, China;Cardiology Department of General Hospital of People’s Liberation Army, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Institute of Geriatric Cardiology, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing 100853, Hai dian District, P.R. China

Others  :  1090061
DOI  :  10.1186/s12920-014-0073-x

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMitochondrial DNA mutations may be associated with cardiovascular disease, including the common cardiac vascular disease, hypertension. In this study we performed segregation analysis and systematically evaluated the entire mitochondrial genome in nine maternally inherited hypertension probands from Chinese Han families. We also performed clinical, genetic and molecular characterization of 74 maternally inherited members from these families and 216 healthy controls.Results In the maternally inherited members, 12 had coronary heart disease (CHD), six had cerebrovascular disease, five had diabetes, nine had hyperlipidemia and three had renal disease. Laboratory tests showed that the sodium and potassium levels in blood of the maternally inherited members were higher than those of the control group (P??0.05). The high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) level of the maternally inherited members was lower than that of the control group (P?=?0.04). The whole mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis revealed a total of 172 base changes, including 17 in ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, four in transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and 22 amino acid substitutions. The remainder were synonymous changes or were located in non-coding regions. We identified seven amino acid changes in the nine maternally inherited hypertension families, including four mutations in ATPase6 and three in Cytb. More interestingly, tRNASer(UCN) 7492?T?>?C was absent in controls and was present in <1% of 2704 mtDNAs, indicating potential functional significance.ConclusionsThis study showed that mutations in mtDNA may contribute to the pathogenesis of hypertension in these Chinese Han families. In the near future, identification of additional mtDNA mutations may indicate further candidate genes for hypertension.