Abstract: To investigate the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in adiponectin gene promoter and essential hypertension (EH) in Chinese Korean and Han of Yanbian area, 220 EH patients and 268 normotensive control individuals were enrolled. PCR and direct DNA sequencing were used to determine the  -11426A>G (rs16861194), -11391G>A (rs17300539), -11377C>G (rs62620185), -11156insCA (rs60806105), and  -11043C>T (rs76786086) SNPs in the promoter region of adiponectin gene. Total cholesterol (TC), the triglyceride (TG), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were examined by oxi-dase method. The plasma adiponectin and insulin were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results showed that: (1) SNPs of -11426A>G,  -11377C>G, and ?11156insCA were found and in Hardy-Weinberg equilib-rium (P>0.05), but not the case in ?11391G>A and ?11043C>T. (2) ?11426A>G and ?11156insCA were perfectly in link-age disequilibrium (D’=1; r2=1). (3) The allele G frequency of ?11426A>G polymorphism in Chinese Korean (21.10%) was significantly higher than that in Chinese Han (12.50%), and also higher in EH group than in the control group of Chinese Han. The genotype and allele frequencies of -11377C>G showed no significant difference between the two groups ob-served. (4) The haplotype -11426G-11377C frequency in EH of Chinese Han was higher than in the control group (P<0.05). (5) The EH showed lower plasma adiponectin level compared with the control group (P<0.001) in both Chinese Korean and Han. Our results indicate that: (1) the perfect linkage disequilibrium of -11426A>G and  -11156insCA is first reported, and the SNP of -11426A>G is associated with Chinese Han and Korean. (2) -11426 G and -11426G-11377C are risk factor and risk haplotype in Yanbian Chinese Han, but not in Chinese-Korean. (3) The lower hypoadiponectinemia is the important risk factors for EH in Chinese Korean and Han of Yanbian area. (4) There is no relationship between-11426A>G polymorphism and the plasma adiponectin level.

Key words: adiponectin, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), essential hypertension (EH), Chinese Korean and Han