EARLY CARDIAC GENE TRANSCRIPT LEVELS IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS OF PATIENTS WITH ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION ASSOCIATE WITH LEFT VENTRICULAR MASS INDEX: PP.22.389

Objective: Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy is one of the many structural alterations in hypertensive heart disease. Heart hypertrophy is associated with an altered gene expression profile. We evaluated gene trasnscript levels of the early cardiac marker genes Nkx2.5, GATA4 and myocardin that are part of the “fetal gene program” and participate in the hypertrophic growth of the adult heart, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with essential hypertension in relation to echocardiography findings defining left ventricular geometry. Design and Methods: Echocardiography and blood sampling were obtained in 48 untreated participants with essential hypertension (25 men, 23 women, mean age 65 ± 6.9 years). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated and gene transcript levels were determined by quantitative real time reverse transcription PCR. Results: Transcript levels of Nkx2.5 (r = 0.512, p < 0.001), GATA4 (r = 0.415, p = 0.003) and myocardin (r = 0.339, p = 0.020), showed significant positive correlations with left ventricular mass index. Conclusions: Our study provide data for the first time that demonstrate a correlation between early cardiac gene transcript levels in peripheral blood cells and left ventricular mass index in patients with essential hypertension. This indicates that there is a possible induction of the hypertrophic response network in hypertensive heart disease, and genes participating in the hypertrophic response might be important markers of left ventricular hypertrophy development in hypertensive patients.