We prospectively investigated the serum insulin, glucose and serum lipoproteins in 40 normotensive offsprings(test group) of parents with essential hypertension compared with 35 normotensive offsprings (control group) of the normotensive families. Compared with control group, the test group was significantly elevated in fasting serum insulin levels(6.82 +/- 2 vs 4.02 +/- 1.7 microU.ml-1) (P < 0.05), fasting serum glucose(4.32 +/- 0.4 vs 3.84 +/- 0.5 mmol.L-1), serum total triglycerides(1.97 +/- 0.8 vs 1.32 +/- 0.5 mmol.L-1), total cholesterol(Tch) (5.13 +/- 1.0 vs 4.24 +/- 0.6 mmol.L-1), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (2.82 +/- 1.0 vs 2.24 +/- 0.7 mmol.L-1), very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (1.02 +/- 0.4 vs 0.66 +/- 0.27 mmol.L-1), high density lipoprotein cholesterol/Tch ratio (0.27 +/- 0.08 vs 0.33 +/- 0.07 mmol.L-1). While post-glucose load the serum insulin and glucose level after glucose load were much higher (P < 0.01) in the test group than that in controls. The findings demonstrated that young normotensive offsprings of parents with hypertension had excellent health, they had an impairment of insulin-mediated glucose disposal, hyperinsulinemia, and dyslipidemia. These findings supported that a common hereditary defect exits in familial trait for essential hypertension and disturbance of carbohydrate and lipoprotein metabolism may be detected before or at least at very early stage of the development of essential hypertension.