@article {1243, title = {Four novel Loci (19q13, 6q24, 12q24, and 5q14) influence the microcirculation in vivo.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 28}, pages = {e1001184}, abstract = {

There is increasing evidence that the microcirculation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Changes in retinal vascular caliber reflect early microvascular disease and predict incident cardiovascular events. We performed a genome-wide association study to identify genetic variants associated with retinal vascular caliber. We analyzed data from four population-based discovery cohorts with 15,358 unrelated Caucasian individuals, who are members of the Cohort for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, and replicated findings in four independent Caucasian cohorts (n  =  6,652). All participants had retinal photography and retinal arteriolar and venular caliber measured from computer software. In the discovery cohorts, 179 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) spread across five loci were significantly associated (p<5.0{\texttimes}10(-8)) with retinal venular caliber, but none showed association with arteriolar caliber. Collectively, these five loci explain 1.0\%-3.2\% of the variation in retinal venular caliber. Four out of these five loci were confirmed in independent replication samples. In the combined analyses, the top SNPs at each locus were: rs2287921 (19q13; p  =  1.61{\texttimes}10(-25), within the RASIP1 locus), rs225717 (6q24; p = 1.25{\texttimes}10(-16), adjacent to the VTA1 and NMBR loci), rs10774625 (12q24; p  =  2.15{\texttimes}10(-13), in the region of ATXN2,SH2B3 and PTPN11 loci), and rs17421627 (5q14; p = 7.32{\texttimes}10(-16), adjacent to the MEF2C locus). In two independent samples, locus 12q24 was also associated with coronary heart disease and hypertension. Our population-based genome-wide association study demonstrates four novel loci associated with retinal venular caliber, an endophenotype of the microcirculation associated with clinical cardiovascular disease. These data provide further insights into the contribution and biological mechanisms of microcirculatory changes that underlie cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Child, Child, Preschool, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 12, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 19, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Microcirculation, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Retinal Vessels, Young Adult}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1001184}, author = {Ikram, M Kamran and Sim, Xueling and Xueling, Sim and Jensen, Richard A and Cotch, Mary Frances and Hewitt, Alex W and Ikram, M Arfan and Wang, Jie Jin and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Breteler, Monique M B and Cheung, Ning and Liew, Gerald and Mitchell, Paul and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and de Jong, Paulus T V M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Kao, Linda and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Smith, Albert Vernon and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Jonasson, Fridbert and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Aspelund, Thor and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Taylor, Kent D and Li, Xiaohui and Iyengar, Sudha K and Xi, Quansheng and Sivakumaran, Theru A and Mackey, David A and Macgregor, Stuart and Martin, Nicholas G and Young, Terri L and Bis, Josh C and Wiggins, Kerri L and Heckbert, Susan R and Hammond, Christopher J and Andrew, Toby and Fahy, Samantha and Attia, John and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Scott, Rodney J and Islam, F M Amirul and Rotter, Jerome I and McAuley, Annie K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tai, E Shyong and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Siscovick, David S and Vingerling, Johannes R and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1567, title = {Candidate gene association study for diabetic retinopathy in persons with type 2 diabetes: the Candidate gene Association Resource (CARe).}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {52}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 29}, pages = {7593-602}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To investigate whether variants in cardiovascular candidate genes, some of which have been previously associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and diabetic nephropathy (DN), are associated with DR in the Candidate gene Association Resource (CARe).

METHODS: Persons with T2D who were enrolled in the study (n = 2691) had fundus photography and genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 2000 candidate genes. Two case definitions were investigated: Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) grades >= 14 and >= 30. The χ{\texttwosuperior} analyses for each CARe cohort were combined by Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) pooling of odds ratios (ORs) and corrected for multiple hypothesis testing. Logistic regression was performed with adjustment for other DR risk factors. Results from replication in independent cohorts were analyzed with CMH meta-analysis methods.

RESULTS: Among 39 genes previously associated with DR, DN, or T2D, three SNPs in P-selectin (SELP) were associated with DR. The strongest association was to rs6128 (OR = 0.43, P = 0.0001, after Bonferroni correction). These associations remained significant after adjustment for DR risk factors. Among other genes examined, several variants were associated with DR with significant P values, including rs6856425 tagging α-l-iduronidase (IDUA) (P = 2.1 {\texttimes} 10(-5), after Bonferroni correction). However, replication in independent cohorts did not reveal study-wide significant effects. The P values after replication were 0.55 and 0.10 for rs6128 and rs6856425, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Genes associated with DN, T2D, and vascular diseases do not appear to be consistently associated with DR. A few genetic variants associated with DR, particularly those in SELP and near IDUA, should be investigated in additional DR cohorts.

}, keywords = {Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diabetic Nephropathies, Diabetic Retinopathy, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Iduronidase, Odds Ratio, P-Selectin, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.11-7510}, author = {Sobrin, Lucia and Green, Todd and Sim, Xueling and Jensen, Richard A and Tai, E Shyong and Tay, Wan Ting and Wang, Jie Jin and Mitchell, Paul and Sandholm, Niina and Liu, Yiyuan and Hietala, Kustaa and Iyengar, Sudha K and Brooks, Matthew and Buraczynska, Monika and Van Zuydam, Natalie and Smith, Albert V and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Doney, Alex S F and Morris, Andrew D and Leese, Graham P and Palmer, Colin N A and Swaroop, Anand and Taylor, Herman A and Wilson, James G and Penman, Alan and Chen, Ching J and Groop, Per-Henrik and Saw, Seang-Mei and Aung, Tin and Klein, Barbara E and Rotter, Jerome I and Siscovick, David S and Cotch, Mary Frances and Klein, Ronald and Daly, Mark J and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {6027, title = {Genetic loci for retinal arteriolar microcirculation.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e65804}, abstract = {

Narrow arterioles in the retina have been shown to predict hypertension as well as other vascular diseases, likely through an increase in the peripheral resistance of the microcirculatory flow. In this study, we performed a genome-wide association study in 18,722 unrelated individuals of European ancestry from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium and the Blue Mountain Eye Study, to identify genetic determinants associated with variations in retinal arteriolar caliber. Retinal vascular calibers were measured on digitized retinal photographs using a standardized protocol. One variant (rs2194025 on chromosome 5q14 near the myocyte enhancer factor 2C MEF2C gene) was associated with retinal arteriolar caliber in the meta-analysis of the discovery cohorts at genome-wide significance of P-value <5{\texttimes}10(-8). This variant was replicated in an additional 3,939 individuals of European ancestry from the Australian Twins Study and Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (rs2194025, P-value = 2.11{\texttimes}10(-12) in combined meta-analysis of discovery and replication cohorts). In independent studies of modest sample sizes, no significant association was found between this variant and clinical outcomes including coronary artery disease, stroke, myocardial infarction or hypertension. In conclusion, we found one novel loci which underlie genetic variation in microvasculature which may be relevant to vascular disease. The relevance of these findings to clinical outcomes remains to be determined.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arterioles, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, MEF2 Transcription Factors, Microcirculation, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Retinal Vessels}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0065804}, author = {Sim, Xueling and Jensen, Richard A and Ikram, M Kamran and Cotch, Mary Frances and Li, Xiaohui and Macgregor, Stuart and Xie, Jing and Smith, Albert Vernon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Mitchell, Paul and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Jonasson, Fridbert and Launer, Lenore J and Attia, John and Baird, Paul N and Harrap, Stephen and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Inouye, Michael and Rochtchina, Elena and Scott, Rodney J and Viswanathan, Ananth and Li, Guo and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kuo, Jane Z and Taylor, Kent D and Hewitt, Alex W and Martin, Nicholas G and Montgomery, Grant W and Sun, Cong and Young, Terri L and Mackey, David A and van Zuydam, Natalie R and Doney, Alex S F and Palmer, Colin N A and Morris, Andrew D and Rotter, Jerome I and Tai, E Shyong and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Vingerling, Johannes R and Siscovick, David S and Wang, Jie Jin and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {6072, title = {Genome-wide association study of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e54232}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Mild retinopathy (microaneurysms or dot-blot hemorrhages) is observed in persons without diabetes or hypertension and may reflect microvascular disease in other organs. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of mild retinopathy in persons without diabetes.

METHODS: A working group agreed on phenotype harmonization, covariate selection and analytic plans for within-cohort GWAS. An inverse-variance weighted fixed effects meta-analysis was performed with GWAS results from six cohorts of 19,411 Caucasians. The primary analysis included individuals without diabetes and secondary analyses were stratified by hypertension status. We also singled out the results from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously shown to be associated with diabetes and hypertension, the two most common causes of retinopathy.

RESULTS: No SNPs reached genome-wide significance in the primary analysis or the secondary analysis of participants with hypertension. SNP, rs12155400, in the histone deacetylase 9 gene (HDAC9) on chromosome 7, was associated with retinopathy in analysis of participants without hypertension, -1.3{\textpm}0.23 (beta {\textpm} standard error), p = 6.6{\texttimes}10(-9). Evidence suggests this was a false positive finding. The minor allele frequency was low (\~{}2\%), the quality of the imputation was moderate (r(2) \~{}0.7), and no other common variants in the HDAC9 gene were associated with the outcome. SNPs found to be associated with diabetes and hypertension in other GWAS were not associated with retinopathy in persons without diabetes or in subgroups with or without hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS: This GWAS of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes showed little evidence of genetic associations. Further studies are needed to identify genes associated with these signs in order to help unravel novel pathways and determinants of microvascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Histone Deacetylases, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Repressor Proteins, Retinal Diseases}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0054232}, author = {Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Li, Xiaohui and Cotch, Mary Frances and Ikram, M Kamran and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Jonasson, Fridbert and Klein, Barbara E K and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert Vernon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cheung, Ning and Hewitt, Alex W and Liew, Gerald and Mitchell, Paul and Wang, Jie Jin and Attia, John and Scott, Rodney and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Taylor, Kent and Hofman, Albert and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Tay, Wan-Ting and Teo, Yik Ying and Seielstad, Mark and Liu, Jianjun and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Saw, Seang-Mei and Aung, Tin and Ganesh, Santhi K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nalls, Mike A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kuo, Jane Z and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Klein, Ronald and Siscovick, David S and Rotter, Jerome I and Tai, E Shong and Vingerling, Johannes and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {5875, title = {Insights into the genetic architecture of early stage age-related macular degeneration: a genome-wide association study meta-analysis.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e53830}, abstract = {

Genetic factors explain a majority of risk variance for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for late AMD implicate genes in complement, inflammatory and lipid pathways, the genetic architecture of early AMD has been relatively under studied. We conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of early AMD, including 4,089 individuals with prevalent signs of early AMD (soft drusen and/or retinal pigment epithelial changes) and 20,453 individuals without these signs. For various published late AMD risk loci, we also compared effect sizes between early and late AMD using an additional 484 individuals with prevalent late AMD. GWAS meta-analysis confirmed previously reported association of variants at the complement factor H (CFH) (peak P = 1.5{\texttimes}10(-31)) and age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2) (P = 4.3{\texttimes}10(-24)) loci, and suggested Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphisms (rs2075650; P = 1.1{\texttimes}10(-6)) associated with early AMD. Other possible loci that did not reach GWAS significance included variants in the zinc finger protein gene GLI3 (rs2049622; P = 8.9{\texttimes}10(-6)) and upstream of GLI2 (rs6721654; P = 6.5{\texttimes}10(-6)), encoding retinal Sonic hedgehog signalling regulators, and in the tyrosinase (TYR) gene (rs621313; P = 3.5{\texttimes}10(-6)), involved in melanin biosynthesis. For a range of published, late AMD risk loci, estimated effect sizes were significantly lower for early than late AMD. This study confirms the involvement of multiple established AMD risk variants in early AMD, but suggests weaker genetic effects on the risk of early AMD relative to late AMD. Several biological processes were suggested to be potentially specific for early AMD, including pathways regulating RPE cell melanin content and signalling pathways potentially involved in retinal regeneration, generating hypotheses for further investigation.

}, keywords = {Apolipoproteins E, Complement Factor H, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors, Macular Degeneration, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Risk Factors, Zinc Finger Protein Gli3}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0053830}, author = {Holliday, Elizabeth G and Smith, Albert V and Cornes, Belinda K and Buitendijk, Gabri{\"e}lle H S and Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Aspelund, Thor and Aung, Tin and Baird, Paul N and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cheng, Ching Yu and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara and Hewitt, Alex W and Inouye, Michael and Jonasson, Fridbert and Klein, Barbara E K and Launer, Lenore and Li, Xiaohui and Liew, Gerald and Lumley, Thomas and McElduff, Patrick and McKnight, Barbara and Mitchell, Paul and Psaty, Bruce M and Rochtchina, Elena and Rotter, Jerome I and Scott, Rodney J and Tay, Wanting and Taylor, Kent and Teo, Yik Ying and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Viswanathan, Ananth and Xie, Sophia and Vingerling, Johannes R and Klaver, Caroline C W and Tai, E Shyong and Siscovick, David and Klein, Ronald and Cotch, Mary Frances and Wong, Tien Y and Attia, John and Wang, Jie Jin} } @article {5877, title = {A meta-analysis of thyroid-related traits reveals novel loci and gender-specific differences in the regulation of thyroid function.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003266}, abstract = {

Thyroid hormone is essential for normal metabolism and development, and overt abnormalities in thyroid function lead to common endocrine disorders affecting approximately 10\% of individuals over their life span. In addition, even mild alterations in thyroid function are associated with weight changes, atrial fibrillation, osteoporosis, and psychiatric disorders. To identify novel variants underlying thyroid function, we performed a large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for serum levels of the highly heritable thyroid function markers TSH and FT4, in up to 26,420 and 17,520 euthyroid subjects, respectively. Here we report 26 independent associations, including several novel loci for TSH (PDE10A, VEGFA, IGFBP5, NFIA, SOX9, PRDM11, FGF7, INSR, ABO, MIR1179, NRG1, MBIP, ITPK1, SASH1, GLIS3) and FT4 (LHX3, FOXE1, AADAT, NETO1/FBXO15, LPCAT2/CAPNS2). Notably, only limited overlap was detected between TSH and FT4 associated signals, in spite of the feedback regulation of their circulating levels by the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. Five of the reported loci (PDE8B, PDE10A, MAF/LOC440389, NETO1/FBXO15, and LPCAT2/CAPNS2) show strong gender-specific differences, which offer clues for the known sexual dimorphism in thyroid function and related pathologies. Importantly, the TSH-associated loci contribute not only to variation within the normal range, but also to TSH values outside the reference range, suggesting that they may be involved in thyroid dysfunction. Overall, our findings explain, respectively, 5.64\% and 2.30\% of total TSH and FT4 trait variance, and they improve the current knowledge of the regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis function and the consequences of genetic variation for hypo- or hyperthyroidism.

}, keywords = {Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism, Male, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Genetic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Signal Transduction, Thyroid Gland, Thyrotropin, Thyroxine}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003266}, author = {Porcu, Eleonora and Medici, Marco and Pistis, Giorgio and Volpato, Claudia B and Wilson, Scott G and Cappola, Anne R and Bos, Steffan D and Deelen, Joris and den Heijer, Martin and Freathy, Rachel M and Lahti, Jari and Liu, Chunyu and Lopez, Lorna M and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Trompet, Stella and Arnold, Alice and Bandinelli, Stefania and Beekman, Marian and B{\"o}hringer, Stefan and Brown, Suzanne J and Buckley, Brendan M and Camaschella, Clara and de Craen, Anton J M and Davies, Gail and de Visser, Marieke C H and Ford, Ian and Forsen, Tom and Frayling, Timothy M and Fugazzola, Laura and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hermus, Ad R and Hofman, Albert and Houwing-Duistermaat, Jeanine J and Jensen, Richard A and Kajantie, Eero and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Lim, Ee M and Masciullo, Corrado and Mariotti, Stefano and Minelli, Cosetta and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Netea-Maier, Romana T and Palotie, Aarno and Persani, Luca and Piras, Maria G and Psaty, Bruce M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Richards, J Brent and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sala, Cinzia and Sabra, Mona M and Sattar, Naveed and Shields, Beverley M and Soranzo, Nicole and Starr, John M and Stott, David J and Sweep, Fred C G J and Usala, Gianluca and van der Klauw, Melanie M and van Heemst, Diana and van Mullem, Alies and Vermeulen, Sita H and Visser, W Edward and Walsh, John P and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Widen, Elisabeth and Zhai, Guangju and Cucca, Francesco and Deary, Ian J and Eriksson, Johan G and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fox, Caroline S and Jukema, J Wouter and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Pramstaller, Peter P and Schlessinger, David and Shuldiner, Alan R and Slagboom, Eline P and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Bijay and Visser, Theo J and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and Rotter, Jerome I and Spector, Tim D and Hicks, Andrew A and Toniolo, Daniela and Sanna, Serena and Peeters, Robin P and Naitza, Silvia} } @article {7019, title = {Genetic determinants of age-related macular degeneration in diverse populations from the PAGE study.}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {55}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Sep 9}, pages = {6839-50}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Substantial progress has been made in identifying susceptibility variants for AMD in European populations; however, few studies have been conducted to understand the role these variants play in AMD risk in diverse populations. The present study aims to examine AMD risk across diverse populations in known and suspected AMD complement factor and lipid-related loci.

METHODS: Targeted genotyping was performed across study sites for AMD and lipid trait-associated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs). Genetic association tests were performed at individual sites and then meta-analyzed using logistic regression assuming an additive genetic model stratified by self-described race/ethnicity. Participants included cases with early or late AMD and controls with no signs of AMD as determined by fundus photography. Populations included in this study were European Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Singaporeans from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.

RESULTS: Index variants of AMD, rs1061170 (CFH) and rs10490924 (ARMS2), were associated with AMD at P=3.05{\texttimes}10(-8) and P=6.36{\texttimes}10(-6), respectively, in European Americans. In general, none of the major AMD index variants generalized to our non-European populations with the exception of rs10490924 in Mexican Americans at an uncorrected P value<0.05. Four lipid-associated SNPS (LPL rs328, TRIB1 rs6987702, CETP rs1800775, and KCTD10/MVK rs2338104) were associated with AMD in African Americans and Mexican Americans (P<0.05), but these associations did not survive strict corrections for multiple testing.

CONCLUSIONS: While most associations did not generalize in the non-European populations, variants within lipid-related genes were found to be associated with AMD. This study highlights the need for larger well-powered studies in non-European populations.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Complement Factor H, DNA, Ethnic Groups, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Macular Degeneration, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Proteins, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.14-14246}, author = {Restrepo, Nicole A and Spencer, Kylee L and Goodloe, Robert and Garrett, Tiana A and Heiss, Gerardo and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Jorgensen, Neal and Jensen, Richard A and Matise, Tara C and Hindorff, Lucia A and Klein, Barbara E K and Klein, Ronald and Wong, Tien Y and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cornes, Belinda K and Tai, E-Shyong and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Haines, Jonathan L and Crawford, Dana C} } @article {6294, title = {Identification of novel genetic Loci associated with thyroid peroxidase antibodies and clinical thyroid disease.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {e1004123}, abstract = {

Autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) are common, affecting 2-5\% of the general population. Individuals with positive thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAbs) have an increased risk of autoimmune hypothyroidism (Hashimoto{\textquoteright}s thyroiditis), as well as autoimmune hyperthyroidism (Graves{\textquoteright} disease). As the possible causative genes of TPOAbs and AITD remain largely unknown, we performed GWAS meta-analyses in 18,297 individuals for TPOAb-positivity (1769 TPOAb-positives and 16,528 TPOAb-negatives) and in 12,353 individuals for TPOAb serum levels, with replication in 8,990 individuals. Significant associations (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)) were detected at TPO-rs11675434, ATXN2-rs653178, and BACH2-rs10944479 for TPOAb-positivity, and at TPO-rs11675434, MAGI3-rs1230666, and KALRN-rs2010099 for TPOAb levels. Individual and combined effects (genetic risk scores) of these variants on (subclinical) hypo- and hyperthyroidism, goiter and thyroid cancer were studied. Individuals with a high genetic risk score had, besides an increased risk of TPOAb-positivity (OR: 2.18, 95\% CI 1.68-2.81, P = 8.1{\texttimes}10(-8)), a higher risk of increased thyroid-stimulating hormone levels (OR: 1.51, 95\% CI 1.26-1.82, P = 2.9{\texttimes}10(-6)), as well as a decreased risk of goiter (OR: 0.77, 95\% CI 0.66-0.89, P = 6.5{\texttimes}10(-4)). The MAGI3 and BACH2 variants were associated with an increased risk of hyperthyroidism, which was replicated in an independent cohort of patients with Graves{\textquoteright} disease (OR: 1.37, 95\% CI 1.22-1.54, P = 1.2{\texttimes}10(-7) and OR: 1.25, 95\% CI 1.12-1.39, P = 6.2{\texttimes}10(-5)). The MAGI3 variant was also associated with an increased risk of hypothyroidism (OR: 1.57, 95\% CI 1.18-2.10, P = 1.9{\texttimes}10(-3)). This first GWAS meta-analysis for TPOAbs identified five newly associated loci, three of which were also associated with clinical thyroid disease. With these markers we identified a large subgroup in the general population with a substantially increased risk of TPOAbs. The results provide insight into why individuals with thyroid autoimmunity do or do not eventually develop thyroid disease, and these markers may therefore predict which TPOAb-positives are particularly at risk of developing clinical thyroid dysfunction.

}, keywords = {Autoantibodies, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Graves Disease, Hashimoto Disease, Humans, Iodide Peroxidase, Risk Factors, Thyroiditis, Autoimmune, Thyrotropin}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1004123}, author = {Medici, Marco and Porcu, Eleonora and Pistis, Giorgio and Teumer, Alexander and Brown, Suzanne J and Jensen, Richard A and Rawal, Rajesh and Roef, Greet L and Plantinga, Theo S and Vermeulen, Sita H and Lahti, Jari and Simmonds, Matthew J and Husemoen, Lise Lotte N and Freathy, Rachel M and Shields, Beverley M and Pietzner, Diana and Nagy, Rebecca and Broer, Linda and Chaker, Layal and Korevaar, Tim I M and Plia, Maria Grazia and Sala, Cinzia and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Richards, J Brent and Sweep, Fred C and Gieger, Christian and Corre, Tanguy and Kajantie, Eero and Thuesen, Betina and Taes, Youri E and Visser, W Edward and Hattersley, Andrew T and Kratzsch, J{\"u}rgen and Hamilton, Alexander and Li, Wei and Homuth, Georg and Lobina, Monia and Mariotti, Stefano and Soranzo, Nicole and Cocca, Massimiliano and Nauck, Matthias and Spielhagen, Christin and Ross, Alec and Arnold, Alice and van de Bunt, Martijn and Liyanarachchi, Sandya and Heier, Margit and Grabe, Hans J{\"o}rgen and Masciullo, Corrado and Galesloot, Tessel E and Lim, Ee M and Reischl, Eva and Leedman, Peter J and Lai, Sandra and Delitala, Alessandro and Bremner, Alexandra P and Philips, David I W and Beilby, John P and Mulas, Antonella and Vocale, Matteo and Abecasis, Goncalo and Forsen, Tom and James, Alan and Widen, Elisabeth and Hui, Jennie and Prokisch, Holger and Rietzschel, Ernst E and Palotie, Aarno and Feddema, Peter and Fletcher, Stephen J and Schramm, Katharina and Rotter, Jerome I and Kluttig, Alexander and Radke, D{\"o}rte and Traglia, Michela and Surdulescu, Gabriela L and He, Huiling and Franklyn, Jayne A and Tiller, Daniel and Vaidya, Bijay and De Meyer, Tim and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Eriksson, Johan G and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Peter C and Wichmann, Eric and Hermus, Ad R and Psaty, Bruce M and Ittermann, Till and Hofman, Albert and Bosi, Emanuele and Schlessinger, David and Wallaschofski, Henri and Pirastu, Nicola and Aulchenko, Yurii S and de la Chapelle, Albert and Netea-Maier, Romana T and Gough, Stephen C L and Meyer Zu Schwabedissen, Henriette and Frayling, Timothy M and Kaufman, Jean-Marc and Linneberg, Allan and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Smit, Johannes W A and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Walsh, John P and Meisinger, Christa and den Heijer, Martin and Visser, Theo J and Spector, Timothy D and Wilson, Scott G and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Cappola, Anne and Toniolo, Daniela and Sanna, Serena and Naitza, Silvia and Peeters, Robin P} } @article {6585, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in African Americans provides insights into the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {e1004517}, abstract = {

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 {\texttimes} 10(-94)}, keywords = {African Americans, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genome-Wide Association Study, HLA-B27 Antigen, HMGA2 Protein, Humans, KCNQ1 Potassium Channel, Mutant Chimeric Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1004517}, author = {Ng, Maggie C Y and Shriner, Daniel and Chen, Brian H and Li, Jiang and Chen, Wei-Min and Guo, Xiuqing and Liu, Jiankang and Bielinski, Suzette J and Yanek, Lisa R and Nalls, Michael A and Comeau, Mary E and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Jensen, Richard A and Evans, Daniel S and Sun, Yan V and An, Ping and Patel, Sanjay R and Lu, Yingchang and Long, Jirong and Armstrong, Loren L and Wagenknecht, Lynne and Yang, Lingyao and Snively, Beverly M and Palmer, Nicholette D and Mudgal, Poorva and Langefeld, Carl D and Keene, Keith L and Freedman, Barry I and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nayak, Uma and Raffel, Leslie J and Goodarzi, Mark O and Chen, Y-D Ida and Taylor, Herman A and Correa, Adolfo and Sims, Mario and Couper, David and Pankow, James S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Doumatey, Ayo and Chen, Guanjie and Mathias, Rasika A and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Singleton, Andrew B and Zonderman, Alan B and Igo, Robert P and Sedor, John R and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Siscovick, David S and McKnight, Barbara and Rice, Kenneth and Liu, Yongmei and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Zhao, Wei and Bielak, Lawrence F and Kraja, Aldi and Province, Michael A and Bottinger, Erwin P and Gottesman, Omri and Cai, Qiuyin and Zheng, Wei and Blot, William J and Lowe, William L and Pacheco, Jennifer A and Crawford, Dana C and Grundberg, Elin and Rich, Stephen S and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Loos, Ruth J F and Borecki, Ingrid B and Peyser, Patricia A and Cummings, Steven R and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Iyengar, Sudha K and Evans, Michele K and Becker, Diane M and Kao, W H Linda and Wilson, James G and Rotter, Jerome I and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Liu, Simin and Rotimi, Charles N and Bowden, Donald W} } @article {6665, title = {Fibrosis-related biomarkers and large and small vessel disease: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {239}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr}, pages = {539-46}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Fibrosis has been implicated in a number of pathological, organ-based conditions of the liver, kidney, heart, and lungs. The objective of this study was to determine whether biomarkers of fibrosis are associated with vascular disease in the large and/or small vessels.

METHODS: We evaluated the associations of two circulating biomarkers of fibrosis, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and procollagen type III N-terminal propeptide (PIIINP), with incident peripheral artery disease (PAD) and subclinical macrovascular (carotid intima-media thickness, flow-mediated vasodilation, ankle-brachial index, retinal vein diameter), and microvascular (retinal artery diameter and retinopathy) disease among older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study. We measured TGF-β and PIIINP from samples collected in 1996 and ascertained clinical PAD through 2011. Measurements of large and small vessels were collected between 1996 and 1998.

RESULTS: After adjustment for sociodemographic, clinical, and biochemical risk factors, TGF-β was associated with incident PAD (hazard ratio [HR]~=~1.36 per doubling of TGF-β, 95\% confidence interval [CI]~=~1.04, 1.78) and retinal venular diameter (1.63~μm per doubling of TGF-β, CI~=~0.23, 3.02). PIIINP was not associated with incident PAD, but was associated with carotid intima-media thickness (0.102~mm per doubling of PIIINP, CI~=~0.029, 0.174) and impaired brachial artery reactivity (-0.20\% change per doubling of PIIINP, CI~=~-0.39,~-0.02). Neither TGF-β nor PIIINP were associated with retinal arteriolar diameter or retinopathy.

CONCLUSIONS: Serum concentrations of fibrosis-related biomarkers were associated with several measures of large vessel disease, including incident PAD, but not with small vessel disease. Fibrosis may contribute to large vessel atherosclerosis in older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, Biomarkers, Brachial Artery, Carotid Artery Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Fibrosis, Humans, Incidence, Male, Peptide Fragments, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Predictive Value of Tests, Procollagen, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Retinal Diseases, Risk Factors, Transforming Growth Factor beta, United States, Vasodilation}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2015.02.020}, author = {Agarwal, Isha and Arnold, Alice and Glazer, Nicole L and Barasch, Eddy and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Gottdiener, John S and Ix, Joachim H and Jensen, Richard A and Kizer, Jorge R and Rimm, Eric B and Siscovick, David S and Tracy, Russell P and Wong, Tien Y and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {6686, title = {Low-frequency and rare exome chip variants associate with fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes susceptibility.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {5897}, abstract = {

Fasting glucose and insulin are intermediate traits for type 2 diabetes. Here we explore the role of coding variation on these traits by analysis of variants on the HumanExome BeadChip in 60,564 non-diabetic individuals and in 16,491 T2D cases and 81,877 controls. We identify a novel association of a low-frequency nonsynonymous SNV in GLP1R (A316T; rs10305492; MAF=1.4\%) with lower FG (β=-0.09{\textpm}0.01 mmol l(-1), P=3.4 {\texttimes} 10(-12)), T2D risk (OR[95\%CI]=0.86[0.76-0.96], P=0.010), early insulin secretion (β=-0.07{\textpm}0.035 pmolinsulin mmolglucose(-1), P=0.048), but higher 2-h glucose (β=0.16{\textpm}0.05 mmol l(-1), P=4.3 {\texttimes} 10(-4)). We identify a gene-based association with FG at G6PC2 (pSKAT=6.8 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) driven by four rare protein-coding SNVs (H177Y, Y207S, R283X and S324P). We identify rs651007 (MAF=20\%) in the first intron of ABO at the putative promoter of an antisense lncRNA, associating with higher FG (β=0.02{\textpm}0.004 mmol l(-1), P=1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Our approach identifies novel coding variant associations and extends the allelic spectrum of variation underlying diabetes-related quantitative traits and T2D susceptibility.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Fasting, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor, Glucose-6-Phosphatase, Humans, Insulin, Mutation Rate, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms6897}, author = {Wessel, Jennifer and Chu, Audrey Y and Willems, Sara M and Wang, Shuai and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Brody, Jennifer A and Dauriz, Marco and Hivert, Marie-France and Raghavan, Sridharan and Lipovich, Leonard and Hidalgo, Bertha and Fox, Keolu and Huffman, Jennifer E and An, Ping and Lu, Yingchang and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Grarup, Niels and Ehm, Margaret G and Li, Li and Baldridge, Abigail S and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Abrol, Ravinder and Besse, C{\'e}line and Boland, Anne and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Fornage, Myriam and Freitag, Daniel F and Garcia, Melissa E and Guo, Xiuqing and Hara, Kazuo and Isaacs, Aaron and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Lange, Leslie A and Layton, Jill C and Li, Man and Hua Zhao, Jing and Meidtner, Karina and Morrison, Alanna C and Nalls, Mike A and Peters, Marjolein J and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Schurmann, Claudia and Silveira, Angela and Smith, Albert V and Southam, Lorraine and Stoiber, Marcus H and Strawbridge, Rona J and Taylor, Kent D and Varga, Tibor V and Allin, Kristine H and Amin, Najaf and Aponte, Jennifer L and Aung, Tin and Barbieri, Caterina and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Boehnke, Michael and Bombieri, Cristina and Bowden, Donald W and Burns, Sean M and Chen, Yuning and Chen, Yii-DerI and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Correa, Adolfo and Czajkowski, Jacek and Dehghan, Abbas and Ehret, Georg B and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Escher, Stefan A and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Gambaro, Giovanni and Giulianini, Franco and Goddard, William A and Goel, Anuj and Gottesman, Omri and Grove, Megan L and Gustafsson, Stefan and Hai, Yang and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Heo, Jiyoung and Hoffmann, Per and Ikram, Mohammad K and Jensen, Richard A and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karaleftheri, Maria and Khor, Chiea C and Kirkpatrick, Andrea and Kraja, Aldi T and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lange, Ethan M and Lee, I T and Lee, Wen-Jane and Leong, Aaron and Liao, Jiemin and Liu, Chunyu and Liu, Yongmei and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Malerba, Giovanni and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Marouli, Eirini and Maruthur, Nisa M and Matchan, Angela and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and McLeod, Olga and Metcalf, Ginger A and Mohlke, Karen L and Muzny, Donna M and Ntalla, Ioanna and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pasko, Dorota and Peter, Andreas and Rayner, Nigel W and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Ken and Sala, Cinzia F and Sennblad, Bengt and Serafetinidis, Ioannis and Smith, Jennifer A and Soranzo, Nicole and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Stahl, Eli A and Stirrups, Kathleen and Tentolouris, Nikos and Thanopoulou, Anastasia and Torres, Mina and Traglia, Michela and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and Javad, Sundas and Yanek, Lisa R and Zengini, Eleni and Becker, Diane M and Bis, Joshua C and Brown, James B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hansen, Torben and Ingelsson, Erik and Karter, Andrew J and Lorenzo, Carlos and Mathias, Rasika A and Norris, Jill M and Peloso, Gina M and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Toniolo, Daniela and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Varma, Rohit and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Boeing, Heiner and Bottinger, Erwin P and Dedoussis, George and Deloukas, Panos and Ferrannini, Ele and Franco, Oscar H and Franks, Paul W and Gibbs, Richard A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and Hofman, Albert and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and O{\textquoteright}Rahilly, Stephen and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pankow, James S and Polasek, Ozren and Province, Michael A and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rudan, Igor and Schulze, Matthias B and Smith, Blair H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Walker, Mark and Watkins, Hugh and Wong, Tien Y and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Laakso, Markku and Borecki, Ingrid B and Chasman, Daniel I and Pedersen, Oluf and Psaty, Bruce M and Tai, E Shyong and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wareham, Nicholas J and Waterworth, Dawn M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kao, W H Linda and Florez, Jose C and Loos, Ruth J F and Wilson, James G and Frayling, Timothy M and Siscovick, David S and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Rotter, Jerome I and Meigs, James B and Scott, Robert A and Goodarzi, Mark O} } @article {7136, title = {General Framework for Meta-Analysis of Haplotype Association Tests.}, journal = {Genet Epidemiol}, volume = {40}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Apr}, pages = {244-52}, abstract = {

For complex traits, most associated single nucleotide variants (SNV) discovered to date have a small effect, and detection of association is only possible with large sample sizes. Because of patient confidentiality concerns, it is often not possible to pool genetic data from multiple cohorts, and meta-analysis has emerged as the method of choice to combine results from multiple studies. Many meta-analysis methods are available for single SNV analyses. As new approaches allow the capture of low frequency and rare genetic variation, it is of interest to jointly consider multiple variants to improve power. However, for the analysis of haplotypes formed by multiple SNVs, meta-analysis remains a challenge, because different haplotypes may be observed across studies. We propose a two-stage meta-analysis approach to combine haplotype analysis results. In the first stage, each cohort estimate haplotype effect sizes in a regression framework, accounting for relatedness among observations if appropriate. For the second stage, we use a multivariate generalized least square meta-analysis approach to combine haplotype effect estimates from multiple cohorts. Haplotype-specific association tests and a global test of independence between haplotypes and traits are obtained within our framework. We demonstrate through simulation studies that we control the type-I error rate, and our approach is more powerful than inverse variance weighted meta-analysis of single SNV analysis when haplotype effects are present. We replicate a published haplotype association between fasting glucose-associated locus (G6PC2) and fasting glucose in seven studies from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium and we provide more precise haplotype effect estimates.

}, issn = {1098-2272}, doi = {10.1002/gepi.21959}, author = {Wang, Shuai and Zhao, Jing Hua and An, Ping and Guo, Xiuqing and Jensen, Richard A and Marten, Jonathan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Meidtner, Karina and Boeing, Heiner and Campbell, Archie and Rice, Kenneth M and Scott, Robert A and Yao, Jie and Schulze, Matthias B and Wareham, Nicholas J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Province, Michael A and Rotter, Jerome I and Hayward, Caroline and Goodarzi, Mark O and Meigs, James B and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e} } @article {7167, title = {Genome-Wide Association Study of the Modified Stumvoll Insulin Sensitivity Index Identifies BCL2 and FAM19A2 as Novel Insulin Sensitivity Loci.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {65}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {3200-11}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have found few common variants that influence fasting measures of insulin sensitivity. We hypothesized that a GWAS of an integrated assessment of fasting and dynamic measures of insulin sensitivity would detect novel common variants. We performed a GWAS of the modified Stumvoll Insulin Sensitivity Index (ISI) within the Meta-Analyses of Glucose and Insulin-Related Traits Consortium. Discovery for genetic association was performed in 16,753 individuals, and replication was attempted for the 23 most significant novel loci in 13,354 independent individuals. Association with ISI was tested in models adjusted for age, sex, and BMI and in a model analyzing the combined influence of the genotype effect adjusted for BMI and the interaction effect between the genotype and BMI on ISI (model 3). In model 3, three variants reached genome-wide significance: rs13422522 (NYAP2; P = 8.87 {\texttimes} 10(-11)), rs12454712 (BCL2; P = 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), and rs10506418 (FAM19A2; P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). The association at NYAP2 was eliminated by conditioning on the known IRS1 insulin sensitivity locus; the BCL2 and FAM19A2 associations were independent of known cardiometabolic loci. In conclusion, we identified two novel loci and replicated known variants associated with insulin sensitivity. Further studies are needed to clarify the causal variant and function at the BCL2 and FAM19A2 loci.

}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db16-0199}, author = {Walford, Geoffrey A and Gustafsson, Stefan and Rybin, Denis and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Chen, Han and Liu, Ching-Ti and Hong, Jaeyoung and Jensen, Richard A and Rice, Ken and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Prokopenko, Inga and Kleber, Marcus E and Delgado, Graciela and Silbernagel, G{\"u}nther and Jackson, Anne U and Appel, Emil V and Grarup, Niels and Lewis, Joshua P and Montasser, May E and Landenvall, Claes and Staiger, Harald and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Frayling, Timothy M and Weedon, Michael N and Xie, Weijia and Morcillo, Sonsoles and Mart{\'\i}nez-Larrad, Mar{\'\i}a Teresa and Biggs, Mary L and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Corbaton-Anchuelo, Arturo and F{\ae}rch, Kristine and G{\'o}mez-Zumaquero, Juan Miguel and Goodarzi, Mark O and Kizer, Jorge R and Koistinen, Heikki A and Leong, Aaron and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia and Machicao, Fausto and Manning, Alisa K and Mart{\'\i}n-N{\'u}{\~n}ez, Gracia Mar{\'\i}a and Rojo-Mart{\'\i}nez, Gemma and Rotter, Jerome I and Siscovick, David S and Zmuda, Joseph M and Zhang, Zhongyang and Serrano-R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Smith, Ulf and Soriguer, Federico and Hansen, Torben and J{\o}rgensen, Torben J and Linnenberg, Allan and Pedersen, Oluf and Walker, Mark and Langenberg, Claudia and Scott, Robert A and Wareham, Nicholas J and Fritsche, Andreas and H{\"a}ring, Hans-Ulrich and Stefan, Norbert and Groop, Leif and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Boehnke, Michael and Bergman, Richard N and Collins, Francis S and Mohlke, Karen L and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Kovacs, Peter and Stumvoll, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Meigs, James B and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Ingelsson, Erik and Florez, Jose C} } @article {6900, title = {Novel Genetic Loci Associated With Retinal Microvascular Diameter.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb}, pages = {45-54}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that retinal microvascular diameters are associated with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions. The shared genetic effects of these associations are currently unknown. The aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the genetic factors that mediate retinal vessel size.

METHODS AND RESULTS: This study extends previous genome-wide association study results using 24 000+ multiethnic participants from 7 discovery cohorts and 5000+ subjects of European ancestry from 2 replication cohorts. Using the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip, we investigate the association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and variants collectively across genes with summary measures of retinal vessel diameters, referred to as the central retinal venule equivalent and the central retinal arteriole equivalent. We report 4 new loci associated with central retinal venule equivalent, one of which is also associated with central retinal arteriole equivalent. The 4 single-nucleotide polymorphisms are rs7926971 in TEAD1 (P=3.1{\texttimes}10(-) (11); minor allele frequency=0.43), rs201259422 in TSPAN10 (P=4.4{\texttimes}10(-9); minor allele frequency=0.27), rs5442 in GNB3 (P=7.0{\texttimes}10(-10); minor allele frequency=0.05), and rs1800407 in OCA2 (P=3.4{\texttimes}10(-8); minor allele frequency=0.05). The latter single-nucleotide polymorphism, rs1800407, was also associated with central retinal arteriole equivalent (P=6.5{\texttimes}10(-12)). Results from the gene-based burden tests were null. In phenotype look-ups, single-nucleotide polymorphism rs201255422 was associated with both systolic (P=0.001) and diastolic blood pressures (P=8.3{\texttimes}10(-04)).

CONCLUSIONS: Our study expands the understanding of genetic factors influencing the size of the retinal microvasculature. These findings may also provide insight into the relationship between retinal and systemic microvascular disease.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.115.001142}, author = {Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Albert Vernon and Li, Xiaohui and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Brody, Jennifer A and Cotch, Mary Frances and McKnight, Barbara and Klein, Ronald and Wang, Jie Jin and Kifley, Annette and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Taylor, Kent D and Klein, Barbara E K and Raffel, Leslie J and Li, Xiang and Ikram, M Arfan and Klaver, Caroline C and van der Lee, Sven J and Mutlu, Unal and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Liu, Chunyu and Kraja, Aldi T and Mitchell, Paul and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Psaty, Bruce M and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {7141, title = {Trans-ethnic Meta-analysis and Functional Annotation Illuminates the~Genetic Architecture of Fasting Glucose and Insulin.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {56-75}, abstract = {

Knowledge of the genetic basis of the type 2 diabetes (T2D)-related quantitative traits fasting glucose (FG) and insulin (FI) in African ancestry (AA) individuals has been limited. In non-diabetic subjects of AA (n = 20,209) and European ancestry (EA; n = 57,292), we performed trans-ethnic (AA+EA) fine-mapping of 54 established EA FG or FI loci with detailed functional annotation, assessed their relevance in AA individuals, and sought previously undescribed loci through trans-ethnic (AA+EA) meta-analysis. We narrowed credible sets of variants driving association signals for 22/54 EA-associated loci; 18/22 credible sets overlapped with active islet-specific enhancers or transcription factor (TF) binding sites, and 21/22 contained at least one TF motif. Of the 54 EA-associated loci, 23 were shared between EA and AA. Replication with an additional 10,096 AA individuals identified two previously undescribed FI loci, chrX FAM133A (rs213676) and chr5 PELO (rs6450057). Trans-ethnic analyses with regulatory annotation illuminate the genetic architecture of glycemic traits and suggest gene regulation as a target to advance precision medicine for T2D. Our approach to utilize state-of-the-art functional annotation and implement trans-ethnic association analysis for discovery and fine-mapping offers a framework for further follow-up and characterization of GWAS signals of complex trait loci.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.006}, author = {Liu, Ching-Ti and Raghavan, Sridharan and Maruthur, Nisa and Kabagambe, Edmond Kato and Hong, Jaeyoung and Ng, Maggie C Y and Hivert, Marie-France and Lu, Yingchang and An, Ping and Bentley, Amy R and Drolet, Anne M and Gaulton, Kyle J and Guo, Xiuqing and Armstrong, Loren L and Irvin, Marguerite R and Li, Man and Lipovich, Leonard and Rybin, Denis V and Taylor, Kent D and Agyemang, Charles and Palmer, Nicholette D and Cade, Brian E and Chen, Wei-Min and Dauriz, Marco and Delaney, Joseph A C and Edwards, Todd L and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Lange, Leslie A and Leong, Aaron and Liu, Jingmin and Liu, Yongmei and Nayak, Uma and Patel, Sanjay R and Porneala, Bianca C and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Snijder, Marieke B and Stallings, Sarah C and Tanaka, Toshiko and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhao, Wei and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Biggs, Mary L and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Chen, Guanjie and Correa, Adolfo and Couper, David J and Crawford, Dana C and Cushman, Mary and Eicher, John D and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Fu, Yi-Ping and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gottesman, Omri and Hara, Kazuo and Harris, Tamara B and Jensen, Richard A and Johnson, Andrew D and Jhun, Min A and Karter, Andrew J and Keller, Margaux F and Kho, Abel N and Kizer, Jorge R and Krauss, Ronald M and Langefeld, Carl D and Li, Xiaohui and Liang, Jingling and Liu, Simin and Lowe, William L and Mosley, Thomas H and North, Kari E and Pacheco, Jennifer A and Peyser, Patricia A and Patrick, Alan L and Rice, Kenneth M and Selvin, Elizabeth and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Tajuddin, Salman M and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Wren, Mary P and Yao, Jie and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Ziegler, Julie T and Zmuda, Joseph M and Zonderman, Alan B and Zwinderman, Aeilko H and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ferrucci, Luigi and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Kardia, Sharon L R and Miljkovic, Iva and Pankow, James S and Rotimi, Charles N and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Arnett, Donna K and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Nalls, Michael A and Province, Michael A and Kao, W H Linda and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Wilson, James G and Loos, Ruth J F and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Rich, Stephen S and Florez, Jose C and Rotter, Jerome I and Morris, Andrew P and Meigs, James B} } @article {7594, title = {Association Between Telomere Length and Risk of Cancer and Non-Neoplastic Diseases: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {JAMA Oncol}, volume = {3}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May 01}, pages = {636-651}, abstract = {

Importance: The causal direction and magnitude of the association between telomere length and incidence of cancer and non-neoplastic diseases is uncertain owing to the susceptibility of observational studies to confounding and reverse causation.

Objective: To conduct a Mendelian randomization study, using germline genetic variants as instrumental variables, to appraise the causal relevance of telomere length for risk of cancer and non-neoplastic diseases.

Data Sources: Genomewide association studies (GWAS) published up to January 15, 2015.

Study Selection: GWAS of noncommunicable diseases that assayed germline genetic variation and did not select cohort or control participants on the basis of preexisting diseases. Of 163 GWAS of noncommunicable diseases identified, summary data from 103 were available.

Data Extraction and Synthesis: Summary association statistics for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are strongly associated with telomere length in the general population.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Odds ratios (ORs) and 95\% confidence intervals (CIs) for disease per standard deviation (SD) higher telomere length due to germline genetic variation.

Results: Summary data were available for 35 cancers and 48 non-neoplastic diseases, corresponding to 420 081 cases (median cases, 2526 per disease) and 1 093 105 controls (median, 6789 per disease). Increased telomere length due to germline genetic variation was generally associated with increased risk for site-specific cancers. The strongest associations (ORs [95\% CIs] per 1-SD change in genetically increased telomere length) were observed for glioma, 5.27 (3.15-8.81); serous low-malignant-potential ovarian cancer, 4.35 (2.39-7.94); lung adenocarcinoma, 3.19 (2.40-4.22); neuroblastoma, 2.98 (1.92-4.62); bladder cancer, 2.19 (1.32-3.66); melanoma, 1.87 (1.55-2.26); testicular cancer, 1.76 (1.02-3.04); kidney cancer, 1.55 (1.08-2.23); and endometrial cancer, 1.31 (1.07-1.61). Associations were stronger for rarer cancers and at tissue sites with lower rates of stem cell division. There was generally little evidence of association between genetically increased telomere length and risk of psychiatric, autoimmune, inflammatory, diabetic, and other non-neoplastic diseases, except for coronary heart disease (OR, 0.78 [95\% CI, 0.67-0.90]), abdominal aortic aneurysm (OR, 0.63 [95\% CI, 0.49-0.81]), celiac disease (OR, 0.42 [95\% CI, 0.28-0.61]) and interstitial lung disease (OR, 0.09 [95\% CI, 0.05-0.15]).

Conclusions and Relevance: It is likely that longer telomeres increase risk for several cancers but reduce risk for some non-neoplastic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Germ-Line Mutation, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Telomere, Telomere Homeostasis}, issn = {2374-2445}, doi = {10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.5945}, author = {Haycock, Philip C and Burgess, Stephen and Nounu, Aayah and Zheng, Jie and Okoli, George N and Bowden, Jack and Wade, Kaitlin Hazel and Timpson, Nicholas J and Evans, David M and Willeit, Peter and Aviv, Abraham and Gaunt, Tom R and Hemani, Gibran and Mangino, Massimo and Ellis, Hayley Patricia and Kurian, Kathreena M and Pooley, Karen A and Eeles, Rosalind A and Lee, Jeffrey E and Fang, Shenying and Chen, Wei V and Law, Matthew H and Bowdler, Lisa M and Iles, Mark M and Yang, Qiong and Worrall, Bradford B and Markus, Hugh Stephen and Hung, Rayjean J and Amos, Chris I and Spurdle, Amanda B and Thompson, Deborah J and O{\textquoteright}Mara, Tracy A and Wolpin, Brian and Amundadottir, Laufey and Stolzenberg-Solomon, Rachael and Trichopoulou, Antonia and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Lund, Eiliv and Duell, Eric J and Canzian, Federico and Severi, Gianluca and Overvad, Kim and Gunter, Marc J and Tumino, Rosario and Svenson, Ulrika and van Rij, Andre and Baas, Annette F and Bown, Matthew J and Samani, Nilesh J and van t{\textquoteright}Hof, Femke N G and Tromp, Gerard and Jones, Gregory T and Kuivaniemi, Helena and Elmore, James R and Johansson, Mattias and Mckay, James and Scelo, Ghislaine and Carreras-Torres, Robert and Gaborieau, Valerie and Brennan, Paul and Bracci, Paige M and Neale, Rachel E and Olson, Sara H and Gallinger, Steven and Li, Donghui and Petersen, Gloria M and Risch, Harvey A and Klein, Alison P and Han, Jiali and Abnet, Christian C and Freedman, Neal D and Taylor, Philip R and Maris, John M and Aben, Katja K and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Vermeulen, Sita H and Wiencke, John K and Walsh, Kyle M and Wrensch, Margaret and Rice, Terri and Turnbull, Clare and Litchfield, Kevin and Paternoster, Lavinia and Standl, Marie and Abecasis, Goncalo R and SanGiovanni, John Paul and Li, Yong and Mijatovic, Vladan and Sapkota, Yadav and Low, Siew-Kee and Zondervan, Krina T and Montgomery, Grant W and Nyholt, Dale R and van Heel, David A and Hunt, Karen and Arking, Dan E and Ashar, Foram N and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Comeau, Mary E and Brown, W Mark and Silverman, Edwin K and Hokanson, John E and Cho, Michael H and Hui, Jennie and Ferreira, Manuel A and Thompson, Philip J and Morrison, Alanna C and Felix, Janine F and Smith, Nicholas L and Christiano, Angela M and Petukhova, Lynn and Betz, Regina C and Fan, Xing and Zhang, Xuejun and Zhu, Caihong and Langefeld, Carl D and Thompson, Susan D and Wang, Feijie and Lin, Xu and Schwartz, David A and Fingerlin, Tasha and Rotter, Jerome I and Cotch, Mary Frances and Jensen, Richard A and Munz, Matthias and Dommisch, Henrik and Schaefer, Arne S and Han, Fang and Ollila, Hanna M and Hillary, Ryan P and Albagha, Omar and Ralston, Stuart H and Zeng, Chenjie and Zheng, Wei and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Reis, Andre and Uebe, Steffen and H{\"u}ffmeier, Ulrike and Kawamura, Yoshiya and Otowa, Takeshi and Sasaki, Tsukasa and Hibberd, Martin Lloyd and Davila, Sonia and Xie, Gang and Siminovitch, Katherine and Bei, Jin-Xin and Zeng, Yi-Xin and F{\"o}rsti, Asta and Chen, Bowang and Landi, Stefano and Franke, Andre and Fischer, Annegret and Ellinghaus, David and Flores, Carlos and Noth, Imre and Ma, Shwu-Fan and Foo, Jia Nee and Liu, Jianjun and Kim, Jong-Won and Cox, David G and Delattre, Olivier and Mirabeau, Olivier and Skibola, Christine F and Tang, Clara S and Garcia-Barcelo, Merce and Chang, Kai-Ping and Su, Wen-Hui and Chang, Yu-Sun and Martin, Nicholas G and Gordon, Scott and Wade, Tracey D and Lee, Chaeyoung and Kubo, Michiaki and Cha, Pei-Chieng and Nakamura, Yusuke and Levy, Daniel and Kimura, Masayuki and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hunt, Steven and Spector, Tim and Soranzo, Nicole and Manichaikul, Ani W and Barr, R Graham and Kahali, Bratati and Speliotes, Elizabeth and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Jonas, Jost B and Wong, Tien Yin and Fogh, Isabella and Lin, Kuang and Powell, John F and Rice, Kenneth and Relton, Caroline L and Martin, Richard M and Davey Smith, George} } @article {7328, title = {Detection of genetic loci associated with plasma fetuin-A: A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr 03}, abstract = {

Plasma fetuin-A is associated with type 2 diabetes, and AHSG, the gene encoding fetuin-A, has been identified as a susceptibility locus for diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Thus far, unbiased investigations of the genetic determinants of plasma fetuin-A concentrations have not been conducted. We searched for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to fetuin-A concentrations by a genome-wide association study in six population-based studies.We examined the association of fetuin-A levels with \~{} 2.5 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in 9,055 participants of European descent and 2,119 African Americans. In both ethnicities, strongest associations were centered in a region with a high degree of LD near the AHSG locus. Among 136 genome-wide significant (p < 0.05x10-8) SNPs near the AHSG locus, the top SNP was rs4917 (p = 1.27x10-303), a known coding SNP in exon 6 that is associated with a 0.06 g/L (\~{}13\%) lower fetuin-A level. This variant alone explained 14\% of the variation in fetuin-A levels. Analyses conditioned on rs4917 indicated that the strong association with the AHSG locus stems from additional independent associations of multiple variants among European Americans. In conclusion, levels of fetuin-A in plasma are strongly associated with SNPs in its encoding gene, AHSG, but not elsewhere in the genome. Given the strength of the associations observed for multiple independent SNPs, the AHSG gene is an example of a candidate locus suitable for additional investigations including fine mapping to elucidate the biological basis of the findings and further functional experiments to clarify AHSG as a potential therapeutic target.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddx091}, author = {Jensen, Majken K and Jensen, Richard A and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Guo, Xiuqing and Yao, Jie and Sun, Qi and Cornelis, Marilyn and Liu, Yongmei and Chen, Ming-Huei and Kizer, Jorge R and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Zmuda, Joseph M and Rotter, Jerome I and Garcia, Melissa and Harris, Tamara and Chen, Ida and Goodarzi, Mark O and Nalls, Michael A and Keller, Margaux and Arnold, Alice M and Newman, Anne and Hoogeeven, Ron C and Rexrode, Kathryn M and Rimm, Eric B and Hu, Frank B and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Katz, Ronit and Pankow, James S and Ix, Joachim H} } @article {7590, title = {Genetically Determined Plasma Lipid Levels and Risk of Diabetic Retinopathy: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {66}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 12}, pages = {3130-3141}, abstract = {

Results from observational studies examining dyslipidemia as a risk factor for diabetic retinopathy (DR) have been inconsistent. We evaluated the causal relationship between plasma lipids and DR using a Mendelian randomization approach. We pooled genome-wide association studies summary statistics from 18 studies for two DR phenotypes: any DR (N = 2,969 case and 4,096 control subjects) and severe DR (N = 1,277 case and 3,980 control subjects). Previously identified lipid-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms served as instrumental variables. Meta-analysis to combine the Mendelian randomization estimates from different cohorts was conducted. There was no statistically significant change in odds ratios of having any DR or severe DR for any of the lipid fractions in the primary analysis that used single nucleotide polymorphisms that did not have a pleiotropic effect on another lipid fraction. Similarly, there was no significant association in the Caucasian and Chinese subgroup analyses. This study did not show evidence of a causal role of the four lipid fractions on DR. However, the study had limited power to detect odds ratios less than 1.23 per SD in genetically induced increase in plasma lipid levels, thus we cannot exclude that causal relationships with more modest effect sizes exist.

}, keywords = {Aged, Diabetic Retinopathy, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipids, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db17-0398}, author = {Sobrin, Lucia and Chong, Yong He and Fan, Qiao and Gan, Alfred and Stanwyck, Lynn K and Kaidonis, Georgia and Craig, Jamie E and Kim, Jihye and Liao, Wen-Ling and Huang, Yu-Chuen and Lee, Wen-Jane and Hung, Yi-Jen and Guo, Xiuqing and Hai, Yang and Ipp, Eli and Pollack, Samuela and Hancock, Heather and Price, Alkes and Penman, Alan and Mitchell, Paul and Liew, Gerald and Smith, Albert V and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Tan, Gavin and Klein, Barbara E K and Kuo, Jane and Li, Xiaohui and Christiansen, Mark W and Psaty, Bruce M and Sandow, Kevin and Jensen, Richard A and Klein, Ronald and Cotch, Mary Frances and Wang, Jie Jin and Jia, Yucheng and Chen, Ching J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Rotter, Jerome I and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Hanis, Craig L and Burdon, Kathryn P and Wong, Tien Yin and Cheng, Ching-Yu} } @article {7572, title = {Single-trait and multi-trait genome-wide association analyses identify novel loci for blood pressure in African-ancestry populations.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {13}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May}, pages = {e1006728}, abstract = {

Hypertension is a leading cause of global disease, mortality, and disability. While individuals of African descent suffer a disproportionate burden of hypertension and its complications, they have been underrepresented in genetic studies. To identify novel susceptibility loci for blood pressure and hypertension in people of African ancestry, we performed both single and multiple-trait genome-wide association analyses. We analyzed 21 genome-wide association studies comprised of 31,968 individuals of African ancestry, and validated our results with additional 54,395 individuals from multi-ethnic studies. These analyses identified nine loci with eleven independent variants which reached genome-wide significance (P < 1.25{\texttimes}10-8) for either systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hypertension, or for combined traits. Single-trait analyses identified two loci (TARID/TCF21 and LLPH/TMBIM4) and multiple-trait analyses identified one novel locus (FRMD3) for blood pressure. At these three loci, as well as at GRP20/CDH17, associated variants had alleles common only in African-ancestry populations. Functional annotation showed enrichment for genes expressed in immune and kidney cells, as well as in heart and vascular cells/tissues. Experiments driven by these findings and using angiotensin-II induced hypertension in mice showed altered kidney mRNA expression of six genes, suggesting their potential role in hypertension. Our study provides new evidence for genes related to hypertension susceptibility, and the need to study African-ancestry populations in order to identify biologic factors contributing to hypertension.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Animals, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors, Blood Pressure, Cadherins, Case-Control Studies, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Membrane Proteins, Mice, Multifactorial Inheritance, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006728}, author = {Liang, Jingjing and Le, Thu H and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Tayo, Bamidele O and Gaulton, Kyle J and Smith, Jennifer A and Lu, Yingchang and Jensen, Richard A and Chen, Guanjie and Yanek, Lisa R and Schwander, Karen and Tajuddin, Salman M and Sofer, Tamar and Kim, Wonji and Kayima, James and McKenzie, Colin A and Fox, Ervin and Nalls, Michael A and Young, J Hunter and Sun, Yan V and Lane, Jacqueline M and Cechova, Sylvia and Zhou, Jie and Tang, Hua and Fornage, Myriam and Musani, Solomon K and Wang, Heming and Lee, Juyoung and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Dreisbach, Albert W and Forrester, Terrence and Chu, Pei-Lun and Cappola, Anne and Evans, Michele K and Morrison, Alanna C and Martin, Lisa W and Wiggins, Kerri L and Hui, Qin and Zhao, Wei and Jackson, Rebecca D and Ware, Erin B and Faul, Jessica D and Reiner, Alex P and Bray, Michael and Denny, Joshua C and Mosley, Thomas H and Palmas, Walter and Guo, Xiuqing and Papanicolaou, George J and Penman, Alan D and Polak, Joseph F and Rice, Kenneth and Taylor, Ken D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Liu, Kiang and Risch, Neil and Hunt, Steven C and Kooperberg, Charles and Zonderman, Alan B and Laurie, Cathy C and Becker, Diane M and Cai, Jianwen and Loos, Ruth J F and Psaty, Bruce M and Weir, David R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Arnett, Donna K and Won, Sungho and Edwards, Todd L and Redline, Susan and Cooper, Richard S and Rao, D C and Rotter, Jerome I and Rotimi, Charles and Levy, Daniel and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Franceschini, Nora} } @article {7927, title = {Genome-wide analyses identify a role for SLC17A4 and AADAT in thyroid hormone regulation.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 10 26}, pages = {4455}, abstract = {

Thyroid dysfunction is an important public health problem, which affects 10\% of the general population and increases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Many aspects of thyroid hormone regulation have only partly been elucidated, including its transport, metabolism, and genetic determinants. Here we report a large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for thyroid function and dysfunction, testing 8 million genetic variants in up to 72,167 individuals. One-hundred-and-nine independent genetic variants are associated with these traits. A genetic risk score, calculated to assess their combined effects on clinical end points, shows significant associations with increased risk of both overt (Graves{\textquoteright} disease) and subclinical thyroid disease, as well as clinical complications. By functional follow-up on selected signals, we identify a novel thyroid hormone transporter (SLC17A4) and a metabolizing enzyme (AADAT). Together, these results provide new knowledge about thyroid hormone physiology and disease, opening new possibilities for therapeutic targets.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06356-1}, author = {Teumer, Alexander and Chaker, Layal and Groeneweg, Stefan and Li, Yong and Di Munno, Celia and Barbieri, Caterina and Schultheiss, Ulla T and Traglia, Michela and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Akiyama, Masato and Appel, Emil Vincent R and Arking, Dan E and Arnold, Alice and Astrup, Arne and Beekman, Marian and Beilby, John P and Bekaert, Sofie and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brown, Suzanne J and De Buyzere, Marc and Campbell, Purdey J and Ceresini, Graziano and Cerqueira, Charlotte and Cucca, Francesco and Deary, Ian J and Deelen, Joris and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Ekici, Arif B and Eriksson, Johan G and Ferrrucci, Luigi and Fiers, Tom and Fiorillo, Edoardo and Ford, Ian and Fox, Caroline S and Fuchsberger, Christian and Galesloot, Tessel E and Gieger, Christian and G{\"o}gele, Martin and De Grandi, Alessandro and Grarup, Niels and Greiser, Karin Halina and Haljas, Kadri and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Sarah E and van Heemst, Diana and den Heijer, Martin and Hicks, Andrew A and den Hollander, Wouter and Homuth, Georg and Hui, Jennie and Ikram, M Arfan and Ittermann, Till and Jensen, Richard A and Jing, Jiaojiao and Jukema, J Wouter and Kajantie, Eero and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kasbohm, Elisa and Kaufman, Jean-Marc and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Kronenberg, Florian and Kubo, Michiaki and Lahti, Jari and Lapauw, Bruno and Li, Shuo and Liewald, David C M and Lim, Ee Mun and Linneberg, Allan and Marina, Michela and Mascalzoni, Deborah and Matsuda, Koichi and Medenwald, Daniel and Meisinger, Christa and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and De Meyer, Tim and Meyer zu Schwabedissen, Henriette E and Mikolajczyk, Rafael and Moed, Matthijs and Netea-Maier, Romana T and Nolte, Ilja M and Okada, Yukinori and Pala, Mauro and Pattaro, Cristian and Pedersen, Oluf and Petersmann, Astrid and Porcu, Eleonora and Postmus, Iris and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Ramos, Yolande F M and Rawal, Rajesh and Redmond, Paul and Richards, J Brent and Rietzschel, Ernst R and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Roef, Greet and Rotter, Jerome I and Sala, Cinzia F and Schlessinger, David and Selvin, Elizabeth and Slagboom, P Eline and Soranzo, Nicole and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Spector, Timothy D and Starr, John M and Stott, David J and Taes, Youri and Taliun, Daniel and Tanaka, Toshiko and Thuesen, Betina and Tiller, Daniel and Toniolo, Daniela and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Visser, W Edward and Walsh, John P and Wilson, Scott G and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Yang, Qiong and Zheng, Hou-Feng and Cappola, Anne and Peeters, Robin P and Naitza, Silvia and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Sanna, Serena and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Visser, Theo J and Medici, Marco} } @article {7668, title = {Refining the accuracy of validated target identification through coding variant fine-mapping in type 2 diabetes.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr}, pages = {559-571}, abstract = {

We aggregated coding variant data for 81,412 type 2 diabetes cases and 370,832 controls of diverse ancestry, identifying 40 coding variant association signals (P < 2.2 {\texttimes} 10); of these, 16 map outside known risk-associated loci. We make two important observations. First, only five of these signals are driven by low-frequency variants: even for these, effect sizes are modest (odds ratio <=1.29). Second, when we used large-scale genome-wide association data to fine-map the associated variants in their regional context, accounting for the global enrichment of complex trait associations in coding sequence, compelling evidence for coding variant causality was obtained for only 16 signals. At 13 others, the associated coding variants clearly represent {\textquoteright}false leads{\textquoteright} with potential to generate erroneous mechanistic inference. Coding variant associations offer a direct route to biological insight for complex diseases and identification of validated therapeutic targets; however, appropriate mechanistic inference requires careful specification of their causal contribution to disease predisposition.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0084-1}, author = {Mahajan, Anubha and Wessel, Jennifer and Willems, Sara M and Zhao, Wei and Robertson, Neil R and Chu, Audrey Y and Gan, Wei and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Taliun, Daniel and Rayner, N William and Guo, Xiuqing and Lu, Yingchang and Li, Man and Jensen, Richard A and Hu, Yao and Huo, Shaofeng and Lohman, Kurt K and Zhang, Weihua and Cook, James P and Prins, Bram Peter and Flannick, Jason and Grarup, Niels and Trubetskoy, Vassily Vladimirovich and Kravic, Jasmina and Kim, Young Jin and Rybin, Denis V and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Meidtner, Karina and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Varga, Tibor V and Marten, Jonathan and Li, Jin and Smith, Albert Vernon and An, Ping and Ligthart, Symen and Gustafsson, Stefan and Malerba, Giovanni and Demirkan, Ayse and Tajes, Juan Fernandez and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Wuttke, Matthias and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Preuss, Michael and Bielak, Lawrence F and Graff, Marielisa and Highland, Heather M and Justice, Anne E and Liu, Dajiang J and Marouli, Eirini and Peloso, Gina Marie and Warren, Helen R and Afaq, Saima and Afzal, Shoaib and Ahlqvist, Emma and Almgren, Peter and Amin, Najaf and Bang, Lia B and Bertoni, Alain G and Bombieri, Cristina and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Brody, Jennifer A and Burtt, Noel P and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cho, Yoon Shin and Christensen, Cramer and Eastwood, Sophie V and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Fischer, Krista and Gambaro, Giovanni and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Grove, Megan L and de Haan, Hugoline G and Hackinger, Sophie and Hai, Yang and Han, Sohee and Tybj{\ae}rg-Hansen, Anne and Hivert, Marie-France and Isomaa, Bo and J{\"a}ger, Susanne and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and K{\"a}r{\"a}j{\"a}m{\"a}ki, AnneMari and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kim, Sung Soo and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kovacs, Peter and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kronenberg, Florian and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Jung-Jin and Lehne, Benjamin and Li, Huaixing and Lin, Keng-Hung and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jun and Loh, Marie and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mamakou, Vasiliki and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Nadkarni, Girish and Neville, Matt and Nielsen, Sune F and Ntalla, Ioanna and Peyser, Patricia A and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Rode, Line and Rolandsson, Olov and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Selvin, Elizabeth and Small, Kerrin S and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Surendran, Praveen and Taylor, Kent D and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thorand, Barbara and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Tin, Adrienne and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Varbo, Anette and Witte, Daniel R and Wood, Andrew R and Yajnik, Pranav and Yao, Jie and Yengo, Loic and Young, Robin and Amouyel, Philippe and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Collins, Francis S and Dedoussis, George and Dehghan, Abbas and Deloukas, Panos and Ferrario, Marco M and Ferrieres, Jean and Florez, Jose C and Frossard, Philippe and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Howson, Joanna M M and Ingelsson, Martin and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kee, Frank and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lindgren, Cecilia M and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Mohlke, Karen L and Moitry, Marie and Morris, Andrew D and Murray, Alison D and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Orho-Melander, Marju and Owen, Katharine R and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Province, Michael A and Rasheed, Asif and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadineira, Fernando and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rosengren, Anders H and Salomaa, Veikko and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Sladek, Rob and Smith, Blair H and Strauch, Konstantin and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Varma, Rohit and Willer, Cristen J and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Butterworth, Adam S and Chambers, John Campbell and Chasman, Daniel I and Danesh, John and van Duijn, Cornelia and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Franco, Oscar H and Franks, Paul W and Froguel, Philippe and Grallert, Harald and Groop, Leif and Han, Bok-Ghee and Hansen, Torben and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and Ingelsson, Erik and Kardia, Sharon L R and Karpe, Fredrik and Kooner, Jaspal Singh and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Laakso, Markku and Lin, Xu and Lind, Lars and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Marchini, Jonathan and Metspalu, Andres and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Palmer, Colin N A and Pankow, James S and Pedersen, Oluf and Psaty, Bruce M and Rauramaa, Rainer and Sattar, Naveed and Schulze, Matthias B and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and Stefansson, Kari and Stumvoll, Michael and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wilson, James G and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Scott, Robert A and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Frayling, Timothy M and Goodarzi, Mark O and Meigs, James B and Boehnke, Michael and Saleheen, Danish and Morris, Andrew P and Rotter, Jerome I and McCarthy, Mark I} } @article {7990, title = {Multiethnic Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Retinopathy Using Liability Threshold Modeling of Duration of Diabetes and Glycemic Control.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {68}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Feb}, pages = {441-456}, abstract = {

To identify genetic variants associated with diabetic retinopathy (DR), we performed a large multiethnic genome-wide association study. Discovery included eight European cohorts ( = 3,246) and seven African American cohorts ( = 2,611). We meta-analyzed across cohorts using inverse-variance weighting, with and without liability threshold modeling of glycemic control and duration of diabetes. Variants with a value <1 {\texttimes} 10 were investigated in replication cohorts that included 18,545 European, 16,453 Asian, and 2,710 Hispanic subjects. After correction for multiple testing, the C allele of rs142293996 in an intron of nuclear VCP-like () was associated with DR in European discovery cohorts ( = 2.1 {\texttimes} 10), but did not reach genome-wide significance after meta-analysis with replication cohorts. We applied the Disease Association Protein-Protein Link Evaluator (DAPPLE) to our discovery results to test for evidence of risk being spread across underlying molecular pathways. One protein-protein interaction network built from genes in regions associated with proliferative DR was found to have significant connectivity ( = 0.0009) and corroborated with gene set enrichment analyses. These findings suggest that genetic variation in as well as variation within a protein-protein interaction network that includes genes implicated in inflammation, may influence risk for DR.

}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db18-0567}, author = {Pollack, Samuela and Igo, Robert P and Jensen, Richard A and Christiansen, Mark and Li, Xiaohui and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Ng, Maggie C Y and Smith, Albert V and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Davoudi, Samaneh and Tan, Gavin S and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Kuo, Jane Z and Dimitrov, Latchezar M and Stanwyck, Lynn K and Meng, Weihua and Hosseini, S Mohsen and Imamura, Minako and Nousome, Darryl and Kim, Jihye and Hai, Yang and Jia, Yucheng and Ahn, Jeeyun and Leong, Aaron and Shah, Kaanan and Park, Kyu Hyung and Guo, Xiuqing and Ipp, Eli and Taylor, Kent D and Adler, Sharon G and Sedor, John R and Freedman, Barry I and Lee, I-Te and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Kubo, Michiaki and Takahashi, Atsushi and Hadjadj, Samy and Marre, Michel and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Varma, Rohit and McCarthy, Mark I and Groop, Leif and Ahlqvist, Emma and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Agardh, Elisabet and Morris, Andrew and Doney, Alex S F and Colhoun, Helen M and Toppila, Iiro and Sandholm, Niina and Groop, Per-Henrik and Maeda, Shiro and Hanis, Craig L and Penman, Alan and Chen, Ching J and Hancock, Heather and Mitchell, Paul and Craig, Jamie E and Chew, Emily Y and Paterson, Andrew D and Grassi, Michael A and Palmer, Colin and Bowden, Donald W and Yaspan, Brian L and Siscovick, David and Cotch, Mary Frances and Wang, Jie Jin and Burdon, Kathryn P and Wong, Tien Y and Klein, Barbara E K and Klein, Ronald and Rotter, Jerome I and Iyengar, Sudha K and Price, Alkes L and Sobrin, Lucia} } @article {8631, title = {Association of Genetic Variation With Keratoconus.}, journal = {JAMA Ophthalmol}, volume = {138}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 02 01}, pages = {174-181}, abstract = {

Importance: Keratoconus is a condition in which the cornea progressively thins and protrudes in a conical shape, severely affecting refraction and vision. It is a major indication for corneal transplant. To discover new genetic loci associated with keratoconus and better understand the causative mechanism of this disease, we performed a genome-wide association study on patients with keratoconus.

Objective: To identify genetic susceptibility regions for keratoconus in the human genome.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This study was conducted with data from eye clinics in Australia, the United States, and Northern Ireland. The discovery cohort of individuals with keratoconus and control participants from Australia was genotyped using the Illumina HumanCoreExome single-nucleotide polymorphism array. After quality control and data cleaning, genotypes were imputed against the 1000 Genomes Project reference panel (phase III; version 5), and association analyses were completed using PLINK version 1.90. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms with P < 1.00 {\texttimes} 10-6 were assessed for replication in 3 additional cohorts. Control participants were drawn from the cohorts of the Blue Mountains Eye Study and a previous study of glaucoma. Replication cohorts were from a previous keratoconus genome-wide association study data set from the United States, a cohort of affected and control participants from Australia and Northern Ireland, and a case-control cohort from Victoria, Australia. Data were collected from January 2006 to March 2019.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Associations between keratoconus and 6 252 612 genetic variants were estimated using logistic regression after adjusting for ancestry using the first 3 principal components.

Results: The discovery cohort included 522 affected individuals and 655 control participants, while the replication cohorts included 818 affected individuals (222 from the United States, 331 from Australia and Northern Ireland, and 265 from Victoria, Australia) and 3858 control participants (2927 from the United States, 229 from Australia and Northern Ireland, and 702 from Victoria, Australia). Two novel loci reached genome-wide significance (defined as P < 5.00 {\texttimes} 10-8), with a P value of 7.46 {\texttimes} 10-9 at rs61876744 in patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 2 gene (PNPLA2) on chromosome 11 and a P value of 6.35 {\texttimes} 10-12 at rs138380, 2.2 kb upstream of casein kinase I isoform epsilon gene (CSNK1E) on chromosome 22. One additional locus was identified with a P value less than 1.00 {\texttimes} 10-6 in mastermind-like transcriptional coactivator 2 (MAML2) on chromosome 11 (P = 3.91 {\texttimes} 10-7). The novel locus in PNPLA2 reached genome-wide significance in an analysis of all 4 cohorts (P = 2.45 {\texttimes} 10-8).

Conclusions and Relevance: In this relatively large keratoconus genome-wide association study, we identified a genome-wide significant locus for keratoconus in the region of PNPLA2 on chromosome 11.

}, keywords = {Adult, Female, Fuchs{\textquoteright} Endothelial Dystrophy, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Keratoconus, Lipase, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {2168-6173}, doi = {10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2019.5293}, author = {McComish, Bennet J and Sahebjada, Srujana and Bykhovskaya, Yelena and Willoughby, Colin E and Richardson, Andrea J and Tenen, Abi and Charlesworth, Jac C and Macgregor, Stuart and Mitchell, Paul and Lucas, Sionne E M and Mills, Richard A and Mackey, David A and Li, Xiaohui and Wang, Jie Jin and Jensen, Richard A and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Hewitt, Alex W and Rabinowitz, Yaron S and Baird, Paul N and Craig, Jamie E and Burdon, Kathryn P} } @article {9104, title = {Multi-ancestry genetic study of type 2 diabetes highlights the power of diverse populations for discovery and translation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 May}, pages = {560-572}, abstract = {

We assembled an ancestrally diverse collection of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in 180,834 affected individuals and 1,159,055 controls (48.9\% non-European descent) through the Diabetes Meta-Analysis of Trans-Ethnic association studies (DIAMANTE) Consortium. Multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis identified 237 loci attaining stringent genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), which were delineated to 338 distinct association signals. Fine-mapping of these signals was enhanced by the increased sample size and expanded population diversity of the multi-ancestry meta-analysis, which localized 54.4\% of T2D associations to a single variant with >50\% posterior probability. This improved fine-mapping enabled systematic assessment of candidate causal genes and molecular mechanisms through which T2D associations are mediated, laying the foundations for functional investigations. Multi-ancestry genetic risk scores enhanced transferability of T2D prediction across diverse populations. Our study provides a step toward more effective clinical translation of T2D GWAS to improve global health for all, irrespective of genetic background.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Ethnicity, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01058-3}, author = {Mahajan, Anubha and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Zhang, Weihua and Ng, Maggie C Y and Petty, Lauren E and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Yu, Grace Z and R{\"u}eger, Sina and Speidel, Leo and Kim, Young Jin and Horikoshi, Momoko and Mercader, Josep M and Taliun, Daniel and Moon, Sanghoon and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Robertson, Neil R and Rayner, Nigel W and Loh, Marie and Kim, Bong-Jo and Chiou, Joshua and Miguel-Escalada, Irene and Della Briotta Parolo, Pietro and Lin, Kuang and Bragg, Fiona and Preuss, Michael H and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Nano, Jana and Guo, Xiuqing and Lamri, Amel and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Scott, Robert A and Lee, Jung-Jin and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Graff, Mariaelisa and Chai, Jin-Fang and Parra, Esteban J and Yao, Jie and Bielak, Lawrence F and Tabara, Yasuharu and Hai, Yang and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Cook, James P and Kals, Mart and Grarup, Niels and Schmidt, Ellen M and Pan, Ian and Sofer, Tamar and Wuttke, Matthias and Sarnowski, Chloe and Gieger, Christian and Nousome, Darryl and Trompet, Stella and Long, Jirong and Sun, Meng and Tong, Lin and Chen, Wei-Min and Ahmad, Meraj and Noordam, Raymond and Lim, Victor J Y and Tam, Claudia H T and Joo, Yoonjung Yoonie and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Raffield, Laura M and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Prins, Bram Peter and Nicolas, Aude and Yanek, Lisa R and Chen, Guanjie and Jensen, Richard A and Tajuddin, Salman and Kabagambe, Edmond K and An, Ping and Xiang, Anny H and Choi, Hyeok Sun and Cade, Brian E and Tan, Jingyi and Flanagan, Jack and Abaitua, Fernando and Adair, Linda S and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Akiyama, Masato and Anand, Sonia S and Bertoni, Alain and Bian, Zheng and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Brody, Jennifer A and Brummett, Chad M and Buchanan, Thomas A and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chan, Juliana C N and Chang, Li-Ching and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Ji and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Chen, Zhengming and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Cushman, Mary and Das, Swapan K and de Silva, H Janaka and Dedoussis, George and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Doumatey, Ayo P and Du, Shufa and Duan, Qing and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Emery, Leslie S and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Fischer, Krista and Floyd, James S and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franco, Oscar H and Frayling, Timothy M and Freedman, Barry I and Fuchsberger, Christian and Genter, Pauline and Gerstein, Hertzel C and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gorkin, David and Gross, Myron and Guo, Yu and Hackinger, Sophie and Han, Sohee and Hattersley, Andrew T and Herder, Christian and Howard, Annie-Green and Hsueh, Willa and Huang, Mengna and Huang, Wei and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Hwu, Chii-Min and Ichihara, Sahoko and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Ingelsson, Martin and Islam, Md Tariqul and Isono, Masato and Jang, Hye-Mi and Jasmine, Farzana and Jiang, Guozhi and Jonas, Jost B and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kandeel, Fouad R and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaur, Varinderpal and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Keaton, Jacob M and Kho, Abel N and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kibriya, Muhammad G and Kim, Duk-Hwan and Kohara, Katsuhiko and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuusisto, Johanna and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Myung-Shik and Lee, Nanette R and Leong, Aaron and Li, Liming and Li, Yun and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Ligthart, Symen and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Locke, Adam E and Louie, Tin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Luk, Andrea O and Luo, Xi and Lv, Jun and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Mani, K Radha and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew D and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nadler, Jerry L and Nalls, Michael A and Nayak, Uma and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Ntalla, Ioanna and Okada, Yukinori and Orozco, Lorena and Patel, Sanjay R and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Pirie, Fraser J and Porneala, Bianca and Prasad, Gauri and Preissl, Sebastian and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Michael and Rohde, Rebecca and Roll, Kathryn and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sander, Maike and Sandow, Kevin and Sattar, Naveed and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Schurmann, Claudia and Shahriar, Mohammad and Shi, Jinxiu and Shin, Dong Mun and Shriner, Daniel and Smith, Jennifer A and So, Wing Yee and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stilp, Adrienne M and Strauch, Konstantin and Suzuki, Ken and Takahashi, Atsushi and Taylor, Kent D and Thorand, Barbara and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tomlinson, Brian and Torres, Jason M and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and Valladares-Salgado, Adan and van Dam, Rob M and van Klinken, Jan B and Varma, Rohit and Vujkovic, Marijana and Wacher-Rodarte, Niels and Wheeler, Eleanor and Whitsel, Eric A and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Witte, Daniel R and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yamamoto, Ken and Yamauchi, Toshimasa and Yengo, Loic and Yoon, Kyungheon and Yu, Canqing and Yuan, Jian-Min and Yusuf, Salim and Zhang, Liang and Zheng, Wei and Raffel, Leslie J and Igase, Michiya and Ipp, Eli and Redline, Susan and Cho, Yoon Shin and Lind, Lars and Province, Michael A and Hanis, Craig L and Peyser, Patricia A and Ingelsson, Erik and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Wang, Ya-Xing and Rotimi, Charles N and Becker, Diane M and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Liu, Yongmei and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Yokota, Mitsuhiro and Rich, Stephen S and Kooperberg, Charles and Pankow, James S and Engert, James C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Froguel, Philippe and Wilson, James G and Sheu, Wayne H H and Kardia, Sharon L R and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Ma, Ronald C W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Groop, Leif and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Chandak, Giriraj R and Collins, Francis S and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Ahsan, Habibul and Motala, Ayesha A and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Park, Kyong-Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Cruz, Miguel and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Grallert, Harald and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Bottinger, Erwin P and Dehghan, Abbas and Tai, E-Shyong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Koh, Woon-Puay and Palmer, Colin N A and Liu, Simin and Abecasis, Goncalo and Kooner, Jaspal S and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A and Florez, Jose C and Saleheen, Danish and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Langenberg, Claudia and Wareham, Nicholas J and Maeda, Shiro and Kadowaki, Takashi and Lee, Juyoung and Millwood, Iona Y and Walters, Robin G and Stefansson, Kari and Myers, Simon R and Ferrer, Jorge and Gaulton, Kyle J and Meigs, James B and Mohlke, Karen L and Gloyn, Anna L and Bowden, Donald W and Below, Jennifer E and Chambers, John C and Sim, Xueling and Boehnke, Michael and Rotter, Jerome I and McCarthy, Mark I and Morris, Andrew P} }