The Genomics of Hypertension

This chapter focuses on how genomics has affected the understanding of the predisposition to hypertension, its ability to screen, diagnose, and determine the prognosis of patients, and its applicability to the monitoring of hypertension. The pathophysiology underlying hypertension remains unresolved even with intensive research in human populations and experimental animal models. In a majority of cases, hypertension is thought to result from an interaction of genes with environmental factors. In only a small number of cases, genetic dissection of hypertension has uncovered single gene mutations that lead to the development of monogenic forms of disease. The complexity of hypertension is illustrated by Guyton's traditional model of cardiovascular dynamics in which multiple circuits of physiological mechanisms act in conjunction with one another to cause hypertension. Unraveling the huge complexity of the pathophysiology underlying the most common form of hypertension is a difficult task, which still remains far from being completed. Genomics, along with physiological genomics, aims to provide more detailed insight into the mechanisms underlying essential hypertension where traditional physiology has failed at large. This, in turn, will facilitate a more rational therapeutic approach to the treatment of the disease, as well as development of new drugs for hypertension. © 2010