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Heritability and Familial Aggregation of Blood Pressure

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Pediatric Hypertension

Abstract

A number of family studies in the 1960s and 1970s showed that a familial tendency to high (or low) blood pressure is established early in life. However, it remained unclear whether shared genes or shared environment caused the blood pressure aggregation within families. Classically, special study designs such as adoption or twin studies are necessary to effectively discriminate genetic from shared environmental influences. Furthermore, estimates of the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors derived from cross-sectional studies do not provide information on underlying genetic and environmental sources of continuity and change in the development of (high) blood pressure from childhood onward. The aim of the current chapter, therefore, is to review the available literature of genetically informative epidemiologic studies to address two issues: the potential causes of familial aggregation of blood pressure and the age dependency of genetic or environmental sources of blood pressure variation (and covariation) within and between families.

XW was supported in part by grants from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (HL104125 & HL105689)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Georgia Prevention Institute, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA

    Xiaoling Wang

  2. Unit of Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics, Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 30.001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Harold Snieder

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  1. Xiaoling Wang
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  2. Harold Snieder
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Correspondence to Harold Snieder .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Seattle Children’s Hospital Division of Nephrology, Seattle, WA, USA

    Joseph T. Flynn

  2. Division of Nephrology MassGeneral for Children at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Department of Pediatrics, Boston, MA, USA

    Julie R. Ingelfinger

  3. St. Luke’s Health System, Children’s Nephrology and Hypertension, Boise, ID, USA

    Karen M. Redwine

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  1. Pediatric Nephrology Unit, MassGeneral Hospital for Children at MGH, Harvard Medical School, Fruit St. 55, 02114, Boston, MA, USA

    Julie R. Ingelfinger M.D.

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Wang, X., Snieder, H. (2018). Heritability and Familial Aggregation of Blood Pressure. In: Flynn, J., Ingelfinger, J., Redwine, K. (eds) Pediatric Hypertension. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31107-4_14

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