Association between Human Urotensin II and Essential Hypertension—A 1:1 Matched Case-Control Study

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the controversial association between human urotensin II and essential hypertension in untreated hypertensive cases and normotensive controls. METHODS: 197 newly diagnosed hypertensive patients and 197 age- and sex-matched normotensive controls were studied. Plasma urotensin II, nitric oxide metabolites, and other traditional biomarkers were examined. RESULTS: Hypertensive patients had higher urotensin II [median (interquartile rang): 9.32 (7.86–11.52) ng/mL vs 8.52 (7.07–10.41) ng/mL] and lower nitric oxide metabolites [19.19 (2.55–38.48) µmol/L vs 23.83 (11.97–43.40) µmol/L] than normotensive controls. Urotensin II was positively correlated with systolic blood pressure (r = 0.169, P<0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.113, P = 0.024) while negatively correlated with nitric oxide metabolites (r = −0.112, P = 0.027). In multivariate regression analysis, subjects in the highest quartile of urotensin II were more likely to have hypertension than those in the lowest quartile (OR, 2.58; 95% CI, 1.21–5.49). Sub-group analyses in 106 pairs of cases and controls with either both normal or both abnormal nitric oxide metabolites levels showed that the association between urotensin II levels and hypertension persisted (P value for trend = 0.039). CONCLUSION: Human urotensin II is markedly associated with essential hypertension, and the association is independent of nitric oxide metabolites. Our results indicated that urotensin II might be an independent risk factor for essential hypertension.