Although our results revealed no difference in baseline levels of YKL-40 between the hypertensive and normotensive subgroups, further analyses indicated that the partial mediating effects of neuroinflammation (VCAM1, sTNFR1, and sTNFR2) on the associations between CSF YKL-40 and p-tau and t-tau were replicated in the HTN + subgroup rather than in the HTN- subgroup. The gene discussed is VCAM1; the disease is hypertensive disorder.