Background: Hypertension is a result of complex factors including multiple genetic polymorphisms.
Objective: This study aims to check for the association of genetic polymorphisms of the cytochrome P450 2J2 (CYP 2J2) and beta-2-adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) genes with hypertension among Saudi subjects.
Subjects and methods: This study included 116 cases with documented hypertension of at least 1 year duration. Their data were compared to that of 250 unrelated healthy nonhypertensive subjects from the same locality. For all participants, DNA was extracted and analyzed using real time polymerase chain reaction technique for the identification of genotypic and allelic variants of the CYP2J2 -50 G/T and ADRB2 G46A genes.
Results: Hypertensive cases showed a significantly higher frequency of mutant CYP2J2 -50 T allele carriage (TT and GT genotypes) compared with controls (odds ratio [OR]=3.7, p=0.0003). The same was observed among subgroups of hypertension associated with diabetes and obesity (OR=3.6, p=0.007) and cases with isolated hypertension (OR=8.4, p=0.0002). On the other hand, hypertensive cases, whether being isolated or associated with obesity and/or diabetes, showed a nonsignificant difference from controls in relation to all genotypic variants related to the ADRB2 G46A polymorphism (p>0.05).
Conclusion: This study showed positive association of CYP2J2 gene polymorphism with hypertension among Saudi cases.