Genetic Determinants of Childhood Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Relation to Adult Health Outcomes: The Consortium of Childhood Blood Pressure Publisher Pubmed

Summary: Can childhood blood pressure genes signal adult heart risk? Genetic analysis linked childhood BP scores to adult heart disease risk, not causation. #Genetics #HeartHealth

Xie T ; Ani A ; Vaez A ; Nolte I M ; Su S ; Ishikuro M ; Wang S ; Zhang W ; Soares A G ; Motazedi E ; Calas L ; Ronkainen J ; Pedersen C E T ; Lu X Show All Authors
Source: European Heart Journal Published:2026

Abstract

Background and Aims: To elucidate the genetic architecture of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) during early life and assess their potential relevance to adult health outcomes. Methods: The largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses to date of childhood systolic BP, diastolic BP, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure (n = 28 425) and HR (n = 22 565) were conducted in children of European ancestry aged 4–17 years. Follow-up analyses included comparisons with adult GWAS results, polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses in independent cohorts of diverse ancestries, and a phenome-wide association study in the UK Biobank. Results: Eight genome-wide significant loci were identified for childhood BP (KIAA2013, CACNB2, PLCE1, PAX2, COL4A2, RP11-236L14.1, CFDP1, TPX2) and three loci for childhood HR (CCDC141, ACHE, MYH6); all novel in children but previously reported in adults. Childhood PRSs explained up to 1.6% of BP variance and 5.2% of HR variance among children of European ancestry. Genetic correlations between childhood and adulthood BP traits were moderate (rg = 0.4–0.7), suggesting age-specific genetic effects on BP. In the UK Biobank, higher childhood BP PRS levels were significantly associated with a broad range of adult health outcomes, particularly cardiometabolic outcomes such as hypertension, angina, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular disease-related mortality. Conclusions: These findings advance the understanding of the genetic architecture of childhood BP and HR and provide compelling genetic evidence linking childhood BP to a broad spectrum of adult health outcomes—particularly cardiometabolic conditions—which may inform targeted prevention strategies from a young age. © The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.