Familial aggregation and childhood blood pressure

Xiaoling Wang, Xiaojing Xu, Shaoyong Su, Harold Snieder

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

There is growing concern about elevated blood pressure (BP) in children. The evidence for familial aggregation of childhood BP is substantial. Twin studies have shown that a large part of the familial aggregation of childhood BP is due to genes. The first part of this review provides the latest progress in gene finding for childhood BP, focusing on the combined effects of multiple loci identified from the genome-wide association studies on adult BP. We further review the evidence on the contribution of the genetic components of other family risk factors to the familial aggregation of childhood BP including obesity, birth weight, sleep quality, sodium intake, parental smoking, and socioeconomic status. At the end, we emphasize the promise of using genomic-relatedness-matrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) analysis, a method that uses genome-wide data from unrelated individuals, in answering a number of unsolved questions in the familial aggregation of childhood BP.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)509
Number of pages1
JournalCurrent Hypertension Reports
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2015

Keywords

  • Blood pressure
  • Childhood
  • Children
  • Familial aggregation
  • Family risk factors
  • Genetic risk scores
  • Genome-wide association studies

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Internal Medicine

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