Background: Genetic mechanisms contribute to blood pressure regulation. This study investigated whether glutathione peroxidase (GPx-3) tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with hypertension in the rural areas of Fuxin county, Liaoning province, China.
Methods: Indigenous Fuxin Han people participated, 523 unrelated hypertensives and 547 controls were recruited. All tag SNPs of GPx-3 gene were selected. We estimated SNP allele frequency in DNA pools with pyrosequencing.
Results: Before Bonferroni correction, C allele frequency for rs8177417 was significantly higher in hypertensives than those in controls (23.4% vs. 19.3%, P = 0.014); T allele frequency for rs3828599 was significantly lower in hypertensives than those in controls (35.6% vs. 40.8%, P = 0.009). However, when a Bonferroni correction for multiple testing was applied, only the polymorphisms rs3828599 of GPx-3 gene was associated with hypertension (P = 0.045, OR: 0.833, 95%CI: 0.695 - 0.998).
Conclusion: The polymorphism of rs3828599 of GPx-3 gene might be associated with hypertension in rural Han Chinese from Fuxin, Liaoning.