Endocrine Abstracts

The regulation of aldosterone secretion is altered in essential hypertension: the phenotype of relative aldosterone excess is present in up to 15% of subjects. The gene encoding aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) offers an obvious candidate to account for this and a polymorphism in its 5′ untranslated region (UTR; −344C/T) is associated with increased frequency of hypertension and higher aldosterone levels. However, this variation is more closely associated with...