PH 7285 Social Determinants of Health

Hypertension is a long term medical condition characterized by increase in blood pressure in an individual. It causes severe morbidity and mortality worldwide.  Several factors play a role in causing hypertension. This includes smoking, obesity, chronic kidney disease, genetic factor and family history of high blood pressure (Nordahl et al., 2014). Family history of high blood pressure is also found in my family. My mother is hypertensive and I found out during Thanksgiving that my grandmother also died because of uncontrolled hypertension which led to cerebrovascular accident. This implies that genetic factors play a key role in developing hypertension. Although role of many genes in causing hypertension is not known, many genes interact with environmental stimuli to cause high blood pressure. Franceschini & Le, (2014) explained that hypertension is caused and modulated by genetic factors and their interaction with environmental and behavioral component. Research done to investigate about the genetic mechanism of blood pressure regulation has revealed the role of 20 genes with mutations having large effect on blood pressure.

 A research study showed an association of the angiotensin gene with hypertension. It showed that genes linked to rennin-angiotensin-aldesterone system controls blood pressures and proteins involved in hormonal regulation of blood pressure. These genes have been found to be localized to 20 chromosome region (Ehret, 2017). Candidate genes belonging to any biological pathway was found to affect blood pressure. Genes encoding rennin-angiotensin system has been found to play a role in diagnosis of hypertension in humans (Franceschini & Le, 2014). Hence, it can be concluded that mutation in angiotensinogen gene alters circulating plasma level and increase blood pressure.

References

Ehret, G. B. (2017). Genetics of Hypertension. Hypertension: A Companion to Braunwald's Heart Disease E-Book, 52.

Franceschini, N., & Le, T. H. (2014). Genetics of hypertension: discoveries from the bench to human populations. American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, 306(1), F1-F11.

Nordahl, H., Osler, M., Frederiksen, B. L., Andersen, I., Prescott, E., Overvad, K., ... & Rod, N. H. (2014). Combined effects of socioeconomic position, smoking, and hypertension on risk of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Stroke, 45(9), 2582-2587.