Genetic influence on blood pressure measured in the office, under laboratory stress and during real life

To determine to what extent the genetic influences on blood pressure (BP) measured in the office, under psychologically stressful conditions in the laboratory and during real life are different from each other. Office BP, BP during a video game challenge and a social stressor interview, and 24-h ambulatory BP were measured in 238 European American and 186 African American twins. BP values across the two tasks were averaged to represent stress levels. Genetic model fitting showed no ethnic or gender differences for any of the measures. The model fitting resulted in heritability estimates of 63, 75 and 71% for office, stress and 24-h systolic BP (SBP) and 59, 67 and 69% for diastolic BP (DBP), respectively. Up to 81% of the heritability of office SBP and 71% of office DBP were attributed to genes that also influenced stress BP. However, only 45% of the heritability of 24-h SBP and 49% of 24-h DBP were attributed to genes that also influence office BP. Similarly, about 39% of the heritability of 24-h SBP and 42% of 24-h DBP were attributed to genes that also influence stress BP. Substantial overlap exists between genes that influence BP measured in the office, under laboratory stress and during real life. However, significant genetic components specific to each BP measurement also exist. These findings suggest that partly different genes or sets of genes contribute to BP regulation in different conditions.