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T D Berry

Publications and source records attributed to T D Berry.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Current knowledge regarding the genetics of human hypertension.

Observations over 11 years from the University of Utah Cardiovascular Genetics Research Clinic and published data from other studies are reviewed to illustrate research approaches, developing results and prospects for future studies. Strong associations with hypertension have been found for several biochemical tests that show substantial genetic determination. Suggestions of recessive major gene effects and significant polygenic background determinations have been found for several variables, including urinary kallikrein excretion, intracellular sodium concentration, sodium-lithium countertransport and sodium-potassium cotransport. Each of these variables is related in some way to sodium or potassium metabolism, or both, and may help to improve the understanding of a possibly inherited susceptibility to hypertension that is related to dietary electrolyte intake. A second major group of factors involving familial predisposition to hypertension include lipid abnormalities (increased very-low- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol); increased fasting insulin levels or insulin resistance, or both; obesity (especially central or upper body obesity); and multiple environmental factors influencing these metabolic systems, including dietary fat, carbohydrate and calorie intake; physical exercise; and certain antihypertensive medications that adversely affect lipid metabolism and glucose tolerance. Some studies even suggest a possible link between these two large groups of factors (electrolyte metabolism and lipid-insulin metabolism). Hypertriglyceridaemia and hyperinsulinaemia are both significantly correlated with increased levels of several cation-flux tests. It is recommended that studies of human hypertension apply these biochemical profiles to study sibships with two or more hypertensive siblings as a cost-effective initial approach.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Diabetes Mellitus↗

A gene for high urinary kallikrein may protect against hypertension in Utah kindreds.

The inheritance of 12-hour overnight total urinary kallikrein excretion and its association with family history of essential hypertension were studied in 405 normotensive adults and 391 youths in 57 Utah pedigrees. Total urinary kallikrein excretion was highly familial with 51% of the total variance attributable to a dominant allele for high total urinary kallikrein excretion and 27% attributable to the combined effects of polygenes and shared family environment. An estimated 28% of the population has one or two copies of the dominant allele for high total urinary kallikrein excretion (2.3 SD units higher than the low homozygotes). About 83% of the population could be assigned to one of the two genotypic populations. Individuals with the high total urinary kallikrein excretion genotype were significantly less likely to have one or two hypertensive parents (relative odds = 0.56, p = 0.042). We conclude that a dominant allele expressed as high total urinary kallikrein excretion may be associated with decreased risk of essential hypertension. Further studies should be performed to confirm this finding and to test for interactions between this apparently protective gene and other genetic and environmental determinants of essential hypertension.

Adolescent↗

Definition of genetic factors in hypertension: a search for major genes, polygenes, and homogeneous subtypes.

Essential hypertension is a heterogeneous group of disorders with different causes. This report reviews approaches taken and results found in current studies of the genetic and environmental determinants of essential hypertension. Recent observations from the University of Utah Cardiovascular Genetics Research Clinic and published data from other studies are cited. Several biochemical tests show strong associations with hypertension and substantial major gene and/or polygenic determination including: urinary kallikrein excretion, intracellular sodium concentration, sodium-lithium countertransport, plasma haptoglobin phenotypes, MN blood groups, and familial dyslipidemia.

Genes↗

Detection of genetic heterogeneity among pedigrees through complex segregation analysis: an application to hypercholesterolemia.

Several methods for investigating genetic heterogeneity for extreme levels of a quantitative trait with hypothesized multiple genetic etiologies require a priori stratification of families and/or identification of distinct phenotypes among affected individuals. We present a statistical approach for detecting genetic heterogeneity that does not rely on either a priori stratification or discrete disease phenotypes. Complex segregation analysis was applied to total serum cholesterol measurements in 709 relatives of 98 healthy index cases selected from 3,666 school children surveyed for lipid levels in Rochester, Minnesota. Thirty-three of the index cases and 109 relatives had hypercholesterolemia (cholesterol levels greater than the 95th percentile for their age and sex). Through application of the mixed genetic model and then estimation of conditional probabilities for having the mutant allele at the major locus, genetic heterogeneity for hypercholesterolemia was indicated. In three of 70 pedigrees with one or more hypercholesterolemics, there is strong evidence for segregation at a major locus. In the remaining pedigrees, only polygene variation and/or environmental variation are associated with cholesterol variability. Grandparents in the three pedigrees that were segregating at the major locus had the highest rates of death due to coronary heart disease. This study establishes that the mixed model has the potential to identify pedigrees with different genetic etiologies for variability in quantitative traits.

Adult↗