Abstract
BackgroundHypertension and atherosclerosis are bidirectionally related, while platelet count could serve as an indicator of endothelial repair. Therefore, high platelet counts could be associated with hypertension by indicating more intense endothelial repair activity. Furthermore, short stature has been shown to constitute a risk of atherosclerosis. Since inflammation-related single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP (rs3782886)) is reportedly associated with myocardial infarction and short stature, rs3782886 could be associated with a high platelet count and thus more intense endothelial repair activity.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study of 988 elderly Japanese who participated in a general health check-up. Short stature was defined as a height of at or under the 25th percentile of the study population, and high platelet count as the highest tertiles of the platelet levels.ResultsHigh platelet counts were found to be independently and positively associated with hypertension while rs3782886 was independently associated with high platelet levels and short stature. The classical cardiovascular risk factor-adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of high platelet count for hypertension was 1.34 (1.02, 1.77). With non-minor homo of the rs3782886 as the reference group, the adjusted OR and 95% CI for high platelet count and short stature of minor home were 2.40 (1.30, 4.42) and 2.21 (1.16, 4.21), respectively.ConclusionSNP (rs3782886) was shown to be associated with high platelet count and short stature. This result partly explains how a genetic factor can influence the impact of height on endothelial repair.
Highlights
Hypertension and atherosclerosis are bidirectionally related, while platelet count could serve as an indicator of endothelial repair
We previously showed that platelet levels were positively associated with hypertension [18] and that platelet count could serve as an indicator of vascular repair [19]
Independent of known cardiovascular risk factors, the high platelet level group showed significantly higher odds ratio (OR) for hypertension compared with the reference group of non-high platelet levels (T1 and T2); the adjusted OR and 95% confidence interval (CI) for hypertension was 1.34 (1.02, 1.77)
Summary
Hypertension and atherosclerosis are bidirectionally related, while platelet count could serve as an indicator of endothelial repair. High platelet counts could be associated with hypertension by indicating more intense endothelial repair activity. Since inflammation-related single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP (rs3782886)) is reportedly associated with myocardial infarction and short stature, rs3782886 could be associated with a high platelet count and more intense endothelial repair activity. Short stature has been reported to have an independent association with hypertension [2], carotid atherosclerosis [3], and incidence of stroke [4]. Short stature has been shown to be associated with lower capacity for hematopoietic activity [9, 10] and with anemia [11] possibly due to the fact that height indicates the absolute volume of total bone marrow. Higher capacity for hematopoietic activity (high hemoglobin level) has been found to be positively associated with atherosclerosis [6, 7] and hypertension [8, 12].
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