A powerful protein that constricts blood vessels is four times more common in African Americans with high blood pressure than whites, according to a report this month Hypertension . The result suggests that genetic differences may help explain why more blacks than whites suffer from high blood pressure.
The finding is surprising because blacks and whites healthy approximately the same amount of endothelin-1, a chemical vasoconstrictor which is produced mainly by cells that line the inside of blood vessels. `` We were not expecting such a difference, '' said study leader Adviye Ergul, a molecular biologist at the University of Georgia, Athens.
The team used a new Ergul antibody test to measure levels of endothelin in 100 people, half of whom suffered from high blood pressure. In addition to racial differences, researchers found that hypertensive blacks are eight times more than black endothelin with normal blood pressure. `` elevated endothelin levels may be the reason why blacks develop hypertension earlier and develop complications of hypertension earlier '' than whites do, Ergul said.
The report was `` a good starting point, '' said John M. Flack cardiovascular epidemiologist Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. However, he said, `` what we really need to know are the factors influencing endothelin [levels]. '' Flack predicts that larger studies will reveal a large variability in levels of endothelin in both black and white.
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