Genetics and Health

New Genes For Blood Pressure Activated in Adolescence

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on March 6th, 2006

As if teenagers don’t have enough going on with their bodies. A new study of 500 pairs of black and white twins has found that a large number of genes involved in blood pressure and hemodynamics (such as heart rate and blood flow) are turned on between ages 14 and 18.

These changes in gene expression account for up to one third of the blood pressure variation that occurred by age 18. Between 25 and 64 percent of the individual differences in blood pressure and hemodynamic are explained by genetics.

Dr. Harold Snieder, genetic epidemiologist at the Medical College of Georgia:

A substantial part of the individual differences between the twins were due to new genetic effects between this period of age 14 and 18. There are new genes being switched on that are involved in blood pressure and factors underlying blood pressure. I think that is the most interesting finding: the large amount of new genes that come into play.

Science Daily, March 5, 2006

Technorati Tags: blood pressure, genetics, genes, health, dna, blood

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POSTED IN: General Genetics and Health