Combined effects of FTO rs9939609 and MC4R rs17782313 on elevated nocturnal blood pressure in the Chinese Han population

AIM In this study we investigated the association of FTO rs9939609 and MC4R rs17782313 with elevated blood pressure in the Chinese Han population, and analysed the relationship between the rs9939609 and rs17782313 variants. METHODS We tested the rs9939609 and rs17782313 variants with the sequence-retrieval method. RESULTS The increase in odds ratios of the A allele of rs9939609 and the C allele of rs17782313 for nocturnal blood pressure were 1.37 and 1.69. The nocturnal blood pressure of participants simultaneously carrying the A and C alleles was significantly higher than the blood pressure of those carrying neither FTO nor MC4R risk alleles (p < 0.05), and that of the controls carrying only the A or C alleles (p < 0.05). No association between the FTO or MC4R genes with daytime hypertension was found in this Chinese population (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION Our data suggest that the rs9939609 and rs17782313 variants may be significantly associated with nocturnal but not daytime blood pressure levels and their combined effects were significant in this Chinese Han population.