If you have high blood pressure, try to relax: help is on the way. In the April issue of Genome Research, Howard Jacob and colleagues (Medical College of Wisconsin) launch a genome-wide assault to locate the genes involved in human hypertension. The researchers first examined several generations of hypertensive rats to locate 67 gene regions linked to high blood pressure. Using the latest data on the human genome, they extrapolated these rat regions into 26 human gene regions likely linked to hypertension. This work will allow scientists to focus their energies directly on these regions, speeding the search for human hypertension genes. This represents the first genome-wide "translation" between humans and animal models of hypertension.

Contact (author):
Howard Jacob Department of Physiology Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee, WI 53226 e-mail: jacob.post.its.mcw.edu