Single nucleotide polymorphisms rs3754777 (STK39) and rs1468326 (WNK1) were associated with hypertension and BP in our multicenter Belgian case-control study, which supports the role of STK39 and WNK1 as potential hypertension susceptibility genes.
Two polymorphisms were found to be associated with hypertension risk with odds ratio of 1.55 for WNK1 rs1468326 (P<0.001) and 1.88 for WNK4 rs9916754 (P<0.001) in the first population, and 1.54 for WKN1 rs1468326, and 1.82 for WNK4 rs9916754 in the second population.
No association was found between WNK1 polymorphisms or haplotypes with hypertension; however, one SNP rs1468326, located 3 kb from the WNK1 promoter, was found to be nominally associated with severity of hypertension, with both systolic blood pressure (BP) (Z = +2.24, P = 0.025) and diastolic BP (Z = +1.99, P = 0.046).