Background: Few studies have examined to what extent genes might modulate the changes of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) with age although, in older populations, systolic BP and diastolic BP vary with age in opposite directions.
Methods: This study involved 205 men and 99 women with either systolic-diastolic or isolated systolic hypertension. Age was > 50 years. Using polymerase chain reaction, four gene polymorphisms related to the renin-angiotensin system were independently investigated in men and women. Adjustments to cardiovascular and renal risk factors as well to the sodium/potassium extracellular space ratio were performed.
Results: Regarding the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene polymorphism, in men > 50 years of age, the slope (mm Hg per unit of age) of the age-diastolic BP (and not age-systolic BP) relationships significantly (P = .0092) differed between genotypes: - 0.79 +/- 0.15 (P < .0001) for the DD genotype, -0.53 +/- 0.10 for the ID genotype (P < .0001), and -0.23 +/- 0.11 for II genotypes (P = NS). Such findings were not observed in the female population in which the age-diastolic BP curves were substantially flatter than in men. No comparable results were observed for gene polymorphisms related either to angiotensinogen or to angiotensin II type 1 receptor.
Conclusions: In men > 50 years of age, the ACE gene polymorphism modulates the physiologic age-induced reduction of diastolic BP. The D allele might contribute to enhance this reduction, a finding that needs confirmation using prospective studies.