Genetic Clues To High Blood Pressure In African Americans
African Americans develop high blood pressure more often and at earlier ages than white Americans. About 31 percent of all U.S. adults have high blood pressure, but the rate for Africans Americans is nearly a third higher: 40 percent.
In the past, investigators have tried to measure the societal stress that African Americans experience, wondered if their kidneys somehow work differently, even hypothesized that inherited traits from African captives in North America predispose black Americans to hypertension.
Michael Brown, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Temple University, is taking a different tack: He’s studying the cells the line the walls of blood vessels.
“What we are trying to do, and this is the very first step, is go down to the cell, try to understand some molecular events that are happening that may set up the conditions for hypertension in African Americans,” Brown said.
