Genetic variants in mitochondrial tRNA genes are associated with essential hypertension in a Chinese Han population.

Background: Of multiple factors contributing to essential hypertension, mitochondrial variants exhibited the trends for serving as molecular and genetic markers for the disease in last five years. However, previous studies focused on African-American or Caucasian pedigrees, knowledge of mitochondrial tRNA genes and population-based Chinese hypertensives were limited.

Methods: We performed sequence analysis in tRNA genes, hot spots for cardiovascular diseases, in 270 Chinese Han essential hypertensives and 270 controls.