Association between Aldosterone Synthase CYP11B2 Polymorphism and Essential Hypertension in Chinese: A Meta-Analysis

A thymidine-to-cytosine substitution in the -344 promoter region of the aldosterone synthase gene (CYP11B2) has been associated with essential hypertension in some but not all studies conducted in Chinese. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the association of the -344C/T polymorphism with essential hypertension in Chinese. A total of 7,472 individuals (4,259 unselected hypertensive patients and 3,213 normotensive controls) from 9 case-control studies were included in the present investigation. Significant associations between the risk of hypertension and the CC genotype and C allele frequencies were found in a total of 19 studies. Our findings support the notion that the CYP11B2 -344C/T polymorphism is associated with essential hypertension. In addition, C allele frequency was found to be lower in southern Chinese controls than in their northern counterparts, and the higher TT genotype homozygous frequency in the southern Chinese supports the hypothesis that the northern Chinese are of southern origin.