Linkage of MN locus and erythrocyte lithium-sodium countertransport in Tecumseh, Michigan.

Human essential hypertension is a family of diseases; one subtype has an increased maximum velocity for red blood cell lithium-sodium countertransport activity. To begin the localization of the gene or genes responsible for this phenotype, we examined the association of blood pressure, lithium-sodium countertransport, and two genetic markers previously associated with hypertension--the MN blood group antigen (chromosome 4) and the plasma protein haptoglobin (chromosome 18)--in a population-based sample of 592 young adults from Tecumseh, Mich., the site of an ongoing cardiovascular epidemiological investigation. Our results suggest that the relation between MN phenotype and systolic blood pressure is significantly different and oppositely directed in men and women. Analysis of data available from previous examinations revealed that similar blood pressure differences related to MN phenotype had been present at least a decade earlier in both men and women. There also was a significant relation between systolic blood pressure and haptoglobin phenotype for the combined group of men and women. In addition to having high systolic blood pressure, men with the MM phenotype had significantly elevated red blood cell lithium-sodium countertransport activity. In studies of brother-brother pairs, we found evidence for significant genetic linkage between the MN locus and red blood cell lithium-sodium countertransport activity.