The University of Western Australia has conducted research that shows a relationship between blood pressure and DNA. An article recently posted in Nature shows that there are 16 genes that can be directly related to blood pressure. Scientists believe that by identifying these genes new treatments for cardiovascular diseases can be discovered. Hypertension is a disease that affects over one billion people throughout the world. These findings are leading to new advances in treatments for people that suffer fro
Further studies have also been conducted that show genes associated with pulse pressure and arterial pressure. Twenty four of these regions contain traits for both pressures. The School of Pathology at the university is currently studying ways that these genes can help with diagnostics of blood pressure diseases.
I find that this is an extremely important find for the advancements of cardiovascular treatments, but I think scientists are still a long way from fully understanding how blood pressure genes function.
This is a good read. If you look at the Genetics book, the Pedigree Analysis chapter has a discussion concerning concordance and the studied effects of genotype on phenotype in humans based on observations of monozygotic twins. What is interesting is that Heart attacks and Percent overweight have high degrees of concordance between monozygotic twins, which suggests that obesity is a phenotype that has a natural predisposition for certain individuals.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to see all of the developments being made linking genes to the causes of diseases and such things. Cardiovascular function is among one of the most crucial functions in the human body to understand. It is very important that advancements are being made in this field, hopefully one day finding origins and cures to many health issue in this field. However I agree that scientists are still a long way from fully understanding how blood pressure genes function.
ReplyDeleteIf people are informed that they have a genetic inclination to hypertension it can be very helpful to their preparation on how to deal with the disease. Knowledge early on in life can help an individual make adequate health conscious decisions to lesser the impact on their life.
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