The interaction of genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of hypertension

Essential hypertension is a major risk factor for severalcardiovascular diseases. It is a complex trait resulting from theinteractions of multiple genetic and environmental factors.Moreover, not only genetic but also epigenetic inheritance plays asignificant role. One can speculate that hypertension develops asa consequence of “errors” in well-coordinated regulatory systemsof blood pressure. Errors in the cascade of molecular,biochemical and genetic processes, which regulate bloodpressure, have finally enough potential to result in hypertension.Numerous environmental factors surrounding the organismduring its development should influence the expression of geneticinformation. However, despite the considerable research effort, itis still difficult to identify all genes and/or other geneticdeterminants leading to essential hypertension and othercardiovascular diseases. This is mainly because these diseasesusually become a medical problem in adulthood, although theirroots might be traced back to earlier stages of ontogeny. The linkbetween distinct developmental periods (e.g. birth andadulthood) should involve changes in gene expression involvingepigenetic phenomena. The purpose of the present paper is tobring a piece of light on gene-environmental interactionspotentially implicated in the pathogenesis of hypertension.