Association of estrogen receptor β gene polymorphisms with hypertension in postmenopausal women

Abstract

To explore the association between estrogen receptor β (ERβ) gene polymorphisms and hypertension in postmenopausal women. The relationship of two polymorphisms (rs944050 and rs4986938) with hypertension was examined in 71 postmenopausal women with hypertension and 50 healthy age-matched controls. In hypertension and control groups, the ERβ allelic frequencies of A and G were 0.500, 0.500, 0.540, 0.460; 0.077, 0.923, 0.170, 0.830 respectively. The genotypic distributions of both polymorphisms stayed within Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. For polymorphism rs4986938, statistical difference existed between the wild-type genotype and a combination of heterozygous and homozygous variant genotypes (P < 0.05). The variant allele A of rs4986938 in ERβ gene decreased the risk of hypertension (OR = 0.41, 95%CI 0.18-0.92). The polymorphism rs4986938 in ERβ gene was associated with an elevated risk of hypertension in Chinese Han postmenopausal women.