Racial difference in aldose reductase C-106T genetic polymorphism and association with essential hypertension.

Objective: To investigate the distribution of aldose reductase (AR) C-106T genetic polymorphism in Chinese Han population and its association with the risk for essential hypertension (EH).
Methods: The AR C-106T polymorphism was genotyped in 148 Chinese EH patients and 137 controls by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The genotype distribution between groups was contrasted by Χ(2)- test and the degree of genetic association was evaluated by 95% confidence interval (CI).
Results: Frequency of the variant AR C-106T allele was 13.9% (95% CI: 11.2%-16.6%) in the controls, which was significantly lower than that in the Japanese (18.4% in 712 individuals, P=0.0063), the Australians (37.9% in 240 individuals, P<0.0001) and the Brazilians (34.7% in 62 individuals, P<0.0001). The frequency of AR C-106T allele was 11.7% (95% CI: 7.9%-15.5%) in the EH patients. No significant difference in the allele frequency was observed between the EH patients and the controls (P=0.147).
Conclusion: There is obvious racial difference in the distribution of AR C-106T polymorphism. The polymorphism is not associated with the risk for EH.