Moreover, further investigation of this chromosome, utilizing a polymorphism within the promoter of the iNOS candidate gene, NOS2A, revealed both increased allele sharing among sibpairs (SPLINK: P=0.02; ASPEX: P=0.00004) and positive association (P=0.034) of NOS2A to essential hypertension.
A locus for essential hypertension has been found recently on chromosome 17 in the general vicinity of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene (NOS2A at 17cen-q11.2).
The nitric oxide synthase (NOS) gene is thought to be associated with essential hypertension (EH), because NO is implicated in endothelium-mediated vasodilation.