Mitochondrial DNA mutation in essential hypertension

Essential hypertension (EH) is an escalating problem for developed and developing countries.It is currently seen as a 'complex' genetic trait caused by multiple susceptibility genes which are modulated by gene-environment and gene-gene interactions.Over the past 10 years,mitochondrial defects have been implicated in a wide variety of degenerative diseases,aging,and cancer.Recently several studies showed that human essential hypertension has excess maternal transmission which suggests a possible mitochondrial involvement.However,the exact pathophysiology of mitochondrial DNA mutation (mtDNA) in essential hypertension still remains perplexing.With the application of a variety of imaging approaches and successive mouse model of mitochonddal diseases we convince that these problems will be resolved in the near future.(J Geriatr Cardiol 2008;5(1):60-64)