BackgroundPrevious studies have shown that molecular variants of the cytoskeletal protein adducin may be involved in regulation of blood pressure both in genetic rat hypertension and in human essential hypertension.ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship of genetic polymorphism of α-adducin with blood pressure, cardiovascular structure, and some biochemical indexes of cardiovascular risk in a sample of general population.Design and methodsA sample of 246 subjects (124 men and 122 women, aged 57.7 ± 3.7 years) was randomly chosen from a middle-aged population. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure, as well as left ventricular mass (by echocardiographic methods) and carotid wall thickness (by B-mode ultrasound methods) were measured. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples; the Gly460Trp diallelic variant of human α-adducin was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction amplification and then allele-specific oligo hybridization.ResultsA trend toward higher 24 h ambulatory blood pressure values in subjects not treated with antihypertensive drugs was observed among carriers of Trp460 allele, although the differences did not attain statistical significance (at closest,P= 0.066 for a dominant effect of Trp460 on systolic blood pressure). When blood pressure was considered a dichotomous variable, allowing the inclusion of treated hypertensives), a higher prevalence of Trp460 allele among hypertensives was observed (0.188 versus 0.106 among normotensives,P= 0.02). There was no evidence of association either of left ventricular mass or of common carotid wall thickness with Gly460Trp polymorphism.ConclusionsIn this sample of a general population, the relationship of a genetic polymorphism of α-adducin with blood pressure values was rather weak. However, a population-based case–control analysis indicated that there was an association between Trp460 allele and hypertension, with a relative risk for subjects carrying at least one Trp460 allele of approximately 1.6. Further investigation of larger and different population samples in order to assess the role of adducin gene polymorphism as a marker of genetic predisposition to the development of hypertension is warranted.