Association between high cytomegalovirus antibody titers and blood pressure in the adult Kazakh and Han Chinese populations

Abstract

Background: Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) has been linked to the pathogenesis of elevated arterial blood pressure (BP). Our study aimed to determine the association between anti-CMV titers and arterial BP in the Kazakh and Han Chinese populations.

Material and methods: Kazakh and Han (n = 800 each) (age, ≥18 years) subjects from Xinjiang, China were examined for anti-CMV immunoglobulin (Ig)G titers using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. The highest anti-CMV titer tertiles determined within gender and ethnicity groups were compared against the two lower tertiles and seronegative samples.

Results: Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that anti-CMV titers were independent determinants for elevated systolic (p = 0.006) BP in Kazakh women and inversely associated with systolic (p = 0.004) and mean arterial (p = 0.019) BP in Han women.

Conclusion: The association between CMV infection and/or resulting immune response and BP elevation differed by sex and ethnicity. In Kazakh women, they were associated with elevated BP and the opposite was true among Han women.

Keywords: Blood pressure; Han Chinese; Human cytomegalovirus; Kazakh Chinese; Risk factors.