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Genetics and the Blood Pressure Response to Exercise Training

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Effects of Exercise on Hypertension

Part of the book series: Molecular and Translational Medicine ((MOLEMED))

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Abstract

Regular physical activity is an effective and safe way to prevent development of hypertension and to lower elevated resting blood pressure. However, there are considerable inter-individual differences in blood pressure responses to exercise training, ranging from marked decreases to no changes to considerable increases. Family and twin studies have shown that blood pressure responses to exercise aggregate in families with heritability estimates ranging mainly from 20 to 40 %. While heritability of blood pressure training responses has been established, little progress has been made in terms of characterizing the molecular genetic basis of the blood pressure responses to exercise training. Several candidate genes have been tested for associations with exercise blood pressure phenotypes, but none of these associations has been confirmed in subsequent studies. The main problem with molecular genetic studies of health-related phenotype responses such as blood pressure to exercise training is the limited number of appropriate studies available and the small sample sizes of the individual studies, leading to lack of statistical power and inability to replicate potential leads. It is possible that emerging new approaches based on “omics” technology (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenomics, and bioinformatics) will eventually lead to a better understanding of the inter-individual variation in the BP response to exercise.

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Abbreviations

BP:

Blood pressure

DBP:

Diastolic blood pressure

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic acid

END1 :

Endothelin-1

HERITAGE:

HEalth RIsk Factors, Exercise TRAining and GEnetics Family Study

GWAS:

Genome-wide association studies

SBP:

Systolic blood pressure

SD:

Standard deviation

SNP:

Single nucleotide polymorphism

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Genomics Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA, 70808, USA

    Tuomo Rankinen Ph.D., F.A.C.S.M., F.A.H.A.

Authors
  1. Tuomo Rankinen Ph.D., F.A.C.S.M., F.A.H.A.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tuomo Rankinen Ph.D., F.A.C.S.M., F.A.H.A. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Human Performance Laboratory, University of Connecticut Department of Kinesiology &, Storrs, Connecticut, USA

    Linda S. Pescatello

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Rankinen, T. (2015). Genetics and the Blood Pressure Response to Exercise Training. In: Pescatello, L. (eds) Effects of Exercise on Hypertension. Molecular and Translational Medicine. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17076-3_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17076-3_10

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17075-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17076-3

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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