A haplotype of angiotensinogen gene that is associated with essential hypertension increases its promoter activity in adipocytes

Obesity is associated with hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases especially in the African-American population. Human angiotensinogen (AGT) gene has seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 1.2 kb region of its promoter. Recent studies have shown that variant − 217A is associated with hypertension in African-American and Chinese population. Nucleotide sequence of the hAGT gene has shown that variant − 217A almost always occurs with variants − 532T, − 793A and − 1074T (forming haplotype AAT) and variant − 217G almost always occurs with variants − 532C, − 793G and − 1074G (forming haplotype GGG). Since hAGT gene is expressed in the adipose tissue and its expression in this tissue may play a role in hypertension, we have analyzed the role of haplotypes AAT and GGG on the expression of this gene in adipocytes. We show here that a reporter construct with haplotype AAT of the hAGT gene has increased promoter activity on transient transfection in pre-adipocytes and differentiated adipocytes as compared to the reporter construct containing GCGG haplotype. Increased expression of the AGT gene containing haplotype AAT in the liver and adipocytes may be a contributing factor for hypertension.