Background: Hypertension has a multifactorial background based on genetic and environmental interactive factors.
Objectives: We aimed to test for the association of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene polymorphisms with hypertension.
Subjects and methods: Participants included 120 Saudi patients with hypertension and 250 normal healthy controls. For all participants, DNA was processed for characterization of ACE I/D and eNOS E298D gene polymorphisms.
Results: Hypertensive cases showed a significantly higher frequency of the ACE mutant D allele carriage (98.3% vs. 92.4%, p = 0.028, OR = 4.8). Cases with hypertension associated with diabetes and obesity showed 100% mutant D allele carriage. Regarding the eNOS E298D polymorphism, the frequency of the mutant D allele carriage was only observed to be higher among cases with hypertension associated with diabetes and obesity, in comparison with controls, yet not reaching statistical significance (41.2% vs. 34%, p > 0.05).
Conclusions: There is increased frequency of ACE and eNOS mutant allele carriage among Saudi patients affected with hypertension, particularly if accompanied by obesity and diabetes.
Keywords: ACE; Saudi Arabia; eNOS; hypertension; polymorphism.