Association of EDNRA, but not WNK4 or FKBP1B, polymorphisms with essential hypertension

In a study of the genetic basis of essential hypertension (HT), we tested four variants in three candidate genes not previously investigated in HT. These encoded the endothelin receptor type A (EDNRA), which transduces most of the vasoconstrictive properties of endothelin‐1, protein kinase lysine deficient 4 (WNK4) whose gene resides in a HT linkage region on chromosome 17, and FK506‐binding protein 1B (FKBP1B), which can reduce blood pressure by increasing nitric oxide. The variants were: for EDNRA, a G→A in the 5′‐UTR and C→T in exon 8; for WNK4, a tetranucleotide repeat in intron 10; and for FKBP1B, a T→C in exon 4. Subjects were Anglo‐Celtic white Australians and included 155 HTs with two HT parents and 245 normotensives (NTs) whose parents were both NT. For EDNRA, we found a weak association of the exon 8 variant with HT (p = 0.019) and association of the 5′‐UTR variant with elevation in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) (p = 0.038 and 0.0031, respectively). The WNK4 intron 10 variant and the FKP1B exon 4 variant showed no association with HT, but tracking with BP was seen for the latter (p = 0.015 and 0.0011 for systolic and diastolic BP, respectively). Our study thus suggests possible involvement of EDNRA in essential HT.