Resistin, a recently discovered polypeptide, antagonizes insulin action and may play a part in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. This study investigates whether resistin gene polymorphism can be associated with type 2 diabetes. We studied 1102 Chinese type 2 diabetes patients and 743 subjects without diabetes. The resistin 3'-untranslated region (UTR) +62G-->A polymorphism was determined by PCR. Type 2 diabetes subjects had a lower frequency of resistin gene 3'UTR +62A allele (GG:GA/AA, 83.5%:16.5%) than the controls (GG:GA/AA, 75.1%:24.9%; odds ratio, 1.524; 95% confidence interval, 1.268-1.831; P < 0.001). Unexpectedly, diabetic patients with the GG genotype had a higher prevalence of hypertension (GG:GA/AA, 49.8%:36.2%; odds ratio, 1.375; 95% confidence interval, 1.116-1.693; P = 0.001). Logistic regression analysis confirmed that the resistin gene 3'UTR +62G-->A polymorphism acts as an independent contributing factor to type 2 diabetes and hypertension. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels in diabetic subjects with the GG genotype (144 +/- 21/87 +/- 13 mm Hg) were significantly higher than those in subjects with GA/AA variants (139 +/- 21/84 +/- 14 mm Hg; P = 0.004 and P = 0.002, respectively). Multiple linear regression analysis showed resistin gene polymorphism to be an independent factor associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressures in type 2 diabetes patients. These findings suggest that resistin may play a role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance-related hypertension.