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The genetic dissection of essential hypertension.

Cowley AW

Department of Physiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226, USA. cowley@mcw.edu

QTL mapping in humans and rats has identified hundreds of blood-pressure-related phenotypes and genomic regions; the next daunting task is gene identification and validation. The development of novel rat model systems that mimic many elements of the human disease, coupled with advances in the genomic and informatic infrastructure for rats, promise to revolutionize the hunt for genes that determine susceptibility to hypertension. Furthermore, methods are evolving that should enable the identification of candidate genes in human populations. Together with the computational reconstruction of regulatory networks, these methods provide opportunities to significantly advance our understanding of the underlying aetiology of hypertension.

Published 18 October 2006 in Nat Rev Genet, 7(11): 829-40.
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