Egemen AKGUN, Ahmet KARAGOZ, Fadime Mutlu ICDUYGU, Aysegul CEBI, Mehmet ALKANAT, Ebru ALP
Van Medical Journal - 2026;33(1):61-67
Introduction: The norepinephrine transporter, encoded by SLC6A2, terminates sympathetic signaling. The rs7194256 (C/T) 3?UTR variant has been implicated in altered NET regulation, yet evidence in essential hypertension and Turkish populations is limited. Methods: We conducted a hospital-based case-control study including 308 adults (153 essential hypertension; 155 normotensive controls). rs7194256 was genotyped by PCR - Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Associations with hypertension (logistic regression) and with clinical/echocardiographic traits (linear regression) were tested under genotype (3-level), dominant (CT+TT vs CC), and additive (per-T-allele) models. Hardy-Weinberg expectations were met in controls and in cases. Results: Genotype frequencies (CC, CT, and TT) were 54.9%, 38.6%, and 6.5% in cases, and 68.4%, 29.0%, and 2.6% in controls, respectively. Under the dominant model, CT+TT carriers had higher odds of hypertension than CC (adjusted OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.14-3.52). For individual genotypes, adjusted ORs were 1.90 (1.05-3.44) for CT vs CC and 2.86 (0.79-10.33) for TT vs CC. The T allele frequency was 25.8% in cases vs 17.1% in controls, with an adjusted allelic OR=1.84 (1.18-2.85). Systolic blood pressure differed across CC/CT/TT and was higher in CT+TT vs CC. Diastolic blood pressure showed an overall genotype association but was not significant in the dominant model. Arterial stiffness indices and echocardiographic parameters showed no significant associations after adjustment. Conclusions: In this Turkish population, the SLC6A2 rs7194256 T allele is associated with essential hypertension and relates more strongly to systolic than diastolic phenotypes.
