Abstract
[Truncated] Hypertension is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of premature death and preventable morbidity and disability. With one in three adults worldwide registering elevated blood pressure (BP) levels there is an increasing need to intervene, to halt and possibly prevent and remedy further disease progression.
Implementing such intervention strategies during the “programming” stages of life to optimise their beneficial effects is known as Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). Many studies have suggested that precursors of hypertension and cardiovascular disease begin during childhood but few have assessed the involvement of genetic variants during early life.
This thesis aims to identify potential genetic influences that underlie the developmental origins of hypertension by:
1) Identifying the association between genetic variants of a key DOHaD pathway: the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis with patterns of developmental growth and early predictors of hypertension and
2) Identifying any genetic variants [from genome-wide data] that may potentially underlie the developmental origins of hypertension
This thesis reviews five major themes: genetic epidemiology, DOHaD, IGF-axis, BP/hypertension and gene-networks. It utilises genotypic data on children aged 4-20 years combined with phenotypic measures of growth and BP.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Publication status | Unpublished - 2015 |
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