Association Study of G Protein‐Coupled Receptor Kinase 4 Gene Variants with Essential Hypertension in Northern Han Chinese

Summary To investigate the association between polymorphisms in the G protein‐coupled receptor kinase 4 gene ( GRK4 ) ( R65L , A142V and A486V ) and essential hypertension in northern Han Chinese, we conducted a case‐control study consisting of 503 individuals with essential hypertension (HT) and 490 age‐, gender‐, and area‐matched normotensive (NT) controls. The three GRK4 variants were genotyped by PCR‐RFLP analysis. Both haplotype and single locus analysis were used to process the genotyping data. The A486 allele showed a significant association with HT ( P < 0.001). A total of 6 haplotypes were observed in the entire population, with the haplotypes L‐V‐A and R‐A‐A being found to be significantly related to hypertension ( P = 0.001).