Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T15:12:42.005Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genetic and Environmental Control of Blood Pressure in Twins and Their Family Members

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

P.V. Tishler ,
F.I. Lewitter ,
B. Rosner  and
F.E. Speizer
P.V. Tishler*
Affiliation:
Brockton/West Roxbury Veterans Administration Medical Center, Brockton, Massachusetts Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
F.I. Lewitter
Affiliation:
BBN Laboratories, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts
B. Rosner
Affiliation:
Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
F.E. Speizer
Affiliation:
Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
*
Veterans Administration Medical Center, 940 Belmont Street, Brockton, MA 02401, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

An interdisciplinary study, in adult twins and their family members, of the genetic and environmental determinants of complex physiologic functions is in progress. This report summarizes our initial studies of the control of the level of systolic (K1) and diastolic (K5) blood pressure in 202 monogygotic (MZ) and 121 dizygotic (DZ) twins, their spouses and their children. Correlation coefficients for blood pressure were adjusted for the covariates age, sex, body mass index (wt/ht2) and screener, all of which significantly augment most correlations. These adjusted correlation coefficients in MZ twins are 0.5 for both K1 and K5 blood pressure. For DZ twins, the adjusted correlation coefficients are 0.21 (K1) and 0.24 (K5). MZ twin-offspring adjusted correlation coefficients are higher than MZ twin-niece/nephew adjusted correlation coefficients (0.12 and 0.06, respectively, for K1; 0.20 and 0.13, respectively, for K5), despite the genetic identity of these relationships. That environmental factors may explain these differences is suggested by other differences in adjusted correlation coefficients that are greater than those predicted by the degree of genetic similarity. In addition, we have assessed the relationship between two biochemical-physiological processes, the urinary excretion of kallikrein and transport of sodium in the erythrocyte (the sodium countertransport and the sodium-potassium-chloride cotransport systems), and blood pressure control, since both have been implicated in the control of blood pressure level. Although we found evidence for substantial genetic control of both phenomena, we were unable to establish any correlation between either function and the level of blood pressure in our normotensive subjects.

These data point to the operation of three broad categories of control of level of blood pressure: constitutional factors (age, sex, body mass), genetic factors and environmental factors. The identities of the genetic and environmental factors are unknown at this time.

Keywords

Blood pressureConstitutionGenetic factorsEnvironmentTwin half-sib model
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , October 1987 , pp. 455 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1987

References

REFERENCES

1. Canessa, M, Adragna, N, Solomon, HS, Connolly, TM, Tosteson, DC (1980): Increased sodium-lithium countertransport in red cells of patients with essential hypertension. New Engl J Med 302:772–776.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2. Canessa, M, Adragna, N, Solomon, H, Tosteson, DC, Falkner, B, Ellison, C (1982): Red cell Na transport polymorphism and essential hypertension. Clin Res 30:334A.Google Scholar
3. Criqui, MH, Klauber, MR, Barrett-Connor, E, Holdbrook, MJ, Suarez, L, Wingard, DL (1982): Adjustment for obesity in studies of cardiovascular disease. Am J Epidemiol 116:685–691.Google Scholar
4. Dadone, MM, Hasstedt, SJ, Hunt, SC, Smith, JB, Ash, KO, Williams, RR (1984): Genetic analysis of sodium lithium countertransport in 10 hypertension-prone kindreds. Am J Med Genet 17:565–577.Google Scholar
5. Feinleib, M, Garrison, RJ, Fabsitz, R, Christian, JC, Hrubec, Z, Borhani, NO, Kannel, WB, Rosenman, LR, Schwartz, JT, Wagner, JO (1977): The NHLBI twin study of cardiovascular disease risk factors: methodology and summary of results. Am J Epidemiol 106:284–295.Google Scholar
6. Garay, RP, Nazaret, C, Hannaert, P, Price, M (1983): Abnormal Na-K cotransport function in a group of patients with essential hypertension. Eur J Clin Invest 13:311–320.Google Scholar
7. Grim, CE, Cantor, RM (1986): Genetic influences on blood pressure in blacks: twin studies. Clin Res 34:479A.Google Scholar
8. Havlik, RJ, Garrison, RJ, Katz, SH, Ellison, RC, Feinleib, M, Myrianthopoulos, NC (1979): Detection of genetic variance in blood pressure of seven-year-old twins. Am J Epidemiol 109:512–516.Google Scholar
9. Kirkendall, WM, Burton, AC, Epstein, FH, Freis, ED (1967): Recommendations for Human Blood Pressure Determination by Sphygmomanometers. American Heart Association.Google Scholar
10. Lewitter, FI, Tishler, PV, Speizer, FE (1980): The families of adult twins as a genetic epidemiological tool. Med Anthropol 4:385–396.Google Scholar
11. Lewitter, FI, Canessa, M (1984): Red cell sodium transport studies in adult twins. Am J Hum Genet 36:172S.Google Scholar
12. McIlhany, ML, Shaffer, JW, Hines, EA (1975): The heritability of blood pressure: an investigation of 200 pairs of twins using the cold pressor test. Johns Hopkins Med J 136:57–64.Google Scholar
13. Margolius, HS, Zinner, SH (1985): The epidemiology of urinary kallikrein and its relation to blood pressure. In Bulpitt, CJ (ed): Epidemiology of Hypertension. Handbook of Hypertension, Vol. 6. Amsterdam: Elsevier pp 279–288.Google Scholar
14. Nance, WE, Corey, LA, Boughman, JA (1975): Monozygotic twin kinships: a new design for genetic and epidemiologie research. In Morton, NE, Chung, CS (eds): Genetic Epidemiology. New York: Academic Press, pp 87–114.Google Scholar
15. Pickering, G (1968): High Blood Pressure. London: J & A Churchill, Ltd, Second Edition, pp 203–235.Google Scholar
16. Rose, RJ, Miller, JZ, Grim, CE, Christian, JC (1979): Aggregation of blood pressure in the families of identical twins. Am J Epidemiol 109:503–511.Google Scholar
17. Rosner, B, Donner, A, Hennekens, CH (1977): Estimation of interclass correlation from familial data. Appl Statistics 26:179–187.Google Scholar
18. Rosner, B, Donner, A, Hennekens, CH (1979): Significance testing of interclass correlations from familial data. Biometrics 35:461–471.Google Scholar
19. Rosner, B (1982): On the estimation and testing of interclass correlations: the general case of multiple replicates for each variable. Am J Epidemiol 116:722–730.Google Scholar
20. Rosner, B (1984): Multivariate methods in ophthalmology with application to other paried-data situations. Biometrics 40:1025–1035.Google Scholar
21. Sarna, S, Kaprio, J, Sistonen, P, Koskenvuo, M (1978): Diagnosis of twin zygosity by mailed questionnaire. Hum Hered 28:241–254.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22. Sims, J, Hewitt, JK, Kelly, KA, Carrol, D, Turner, JR (1986): Familial and individual influences on blood pressure. Acta Genet Med Gemellol 35:7–21.Google Scholar
23. Speers, MA, Kasl, SV, Freeman, DH Jr, Ostfeld, AM (1986): Blood pressure concordance between spouses. Am J Epidemiol 123:818–829.Google Scholar
24. Speizer, FE, Tishler, PV, Lewitter, FI, Margolius, HS, Rosner, B (1984): Genetic control of urinary kallikrein and its relation to blood pressure. Am J Hum Genet 36:181S.Google Scholar
25. Stocks, P (1930): A biometric investigation of twins and their brothers and sisters. Ann Eugenics 4:49–108.Google Scholar
26. Woods, JW, Falk, RJ, Pittman, AW, Klemmer, PJ, Watson, BS, Namboodiri, K (1982): Increased red cell sodium-lithium countertransport in normotensive sons of hypertensive patients. New Engl J Med 306:593–595.Google Scholar
27. Wright, BM, Dore, CF (1970): A random-zero sphygmomanometer. Lancet i: 337–338.Google Scholar
28. Zinner, SH, Margolius, HS, Rosner, B, Kass, EH (1978): Stability of blood pressure rank and urinary kallikrein concentration in childhood: an eight-year follow-up. Circulation 58:908–915.Google Scholar