Objective: To investigate whether the polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme(ACE) gene is associated with essential hypertension in Chinese.
Methods: A case-control study was carried out using 134 hypertensive (HT) and 165 normotensive (NT) subjects. The insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of ACE gene was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Results: The difference of genotype and derived allele frequencies for deletion of ACE gene between hypertensive and normotensive subjects were statistically significant(i.e. 51.9% vs 15.7 and 0.69 vs 0.31 for hypertensive and normotensive respectively, P < 0.05).
Conclusions: The possession of D/D homozygote genotype of the ACE gene might be a marker for genetic susceptibility to Hans hypertension in Chinese.