Association and linkage analyses of glucocorticoid receptor gene markers in essential hypertension

Suggestive evidence has been obtained in a "4-corners" study for involvement of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (GRL) in genetic variation in blood pressure. Therefore, we tested markers at the GRL locus for association and linkage with essential hypertension (HT). For the association study, we used a well-characterized group of 129 white Australians of Anglo-Celtic extraction who had HT, a strong family history of HT (2 parents with the disease), and early-onset moderate-to-severe disease. Controls were 195 normotensive white subjects whose parents were normotensive past the age of 50 years. For the linkage study, we used 175 sibling pairs of similar ancestry. The case-control groups were genotyped for an Asn363Ser variant in exon 2, a GTT variant in intron 4, and a microsatellite marker (D5S207) tightly linked